Data from: "Warming and the dependence of limber pine (Pinus flexilis) establishment on summer soil moisture within and above its current elevation range"
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- U.S. Geological Survey
- University of California Berkeley
This data package contains data that were used for analysis in “Warming and the dependence of limber pine (Pinus flexilis) establishment on summer soil moisture within and above its current elevation range”, by Moyes et al. 2013. All data collection and field research were completed on Niwot Ridge, Colorado, USA.This data package contains nine comma-separated-values (.csv) files, one text (.txt) file, and two zipped seedling folders that were used for leaf area analysis. One zipped folder contains 468 .jpg photographs of seedlings, and the second contains 468 corresponding Image J-processed .jpg images that include silhouette leaf area values. .csv and .txt files can be opened using any compatible simple text-editor software such as TextEdit (Mac) and Notepad (Windows); .csv’s can also be opened using R and Microsoft Excel. Image files can be opened using Preview (Mac) and Photos (Windows). In addition, there are a total of 31 Microsoft Excel files: three .xlsx files, and 28 raw Li-Cor output .xls files. This data user’s guide is available in .pdf format, and can be opened using Adobe Acrobat Reader, or any other compatible file viewing software. Geospatial data showing field site locations are also included in the archive for use and reference. There are two geospatial formats in this archive: ESRI shapefiles (.shp) and keyhole markup-language (.kml) files. Both file types contain bounding box information, with the former being polygons, and the latter containing corner coordinates for each site. ESRI shapefiles can be opened using any geospatial software compatible with the file type (such as ESRI’s ArcGIS suite and QGIS), and .kml files are compatible with Google Earth and Google Maps.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Continued changes in climate are projected to alter the geographic distributions of plant species, in part by affecting where individuals can establish from seed. We tested the hypothesis that warming promotes uphill redistribution of subalpine tree populations by reducing cold limitation at high elevation and enhancing drought stress at low elevation. We seeded limber pine (Pinus flexilis) into plots with combinations of infrared heating and water addition treatments, at sites positioned in lower subalpine forest, the treeline ecotone, and alpine tundra. In 2010, first-year seedlings were assessed for physiological performance and survival over the snow-free growing season. Seedlings emerged in midsummer, about 5–8 weeks after snowmelt. Low temperature was not observed to limit seedling photosynthesis or respiration between emergence and October, and thus experimental warming did not appear to reduce cold limitation at high elevation. Instead, gas exchange and water potential from all sites indicated a prevailing effect of summer moisture stress on photosynthesis and carbon balance. Infrared heaters raised soil growing degree days (base 5 °C, p < 0.001) and August–September mean soil temperature (p < 0.001). Despite marked differences in vegetation cover and meteorological conditions across sites, volumetric soil moisture content (θ) at 5–10 cm below 0.16 and 0.08 m^3 m^(−3) consistently corresponded with moderate and severe indications of drought stress in midday stem water potential, stomatal conductance, photosynthesis, and respiration. Seedling survival was greater in watered plots than in heated plots (p = 0.01), and negatively related to soil growing degree days and duration of exposure to θ < 0.08 m^3 m^(−3) in a stepwise linear regression model (p < 0.0001). We concluded that seasonal moisture stress and high soil surface temperature imposed a strong limitation to limber pine seedling establishment across a broad elevation gradient, including at treeline, and that these limitations are likely to be enhanced by further climate warming.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Maintenance log:Amended file name error in Data User's Guide May 19 2022
- Research Organization:
- Environmental System Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem (ESS-DIVE) (United States); Subalpine and Alpine Species Range Shifts with Climate Change: Temperature and Soil Moisture Manipulations to Test Species and Population Responses (Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- U.S. DOE > Office of Science > Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-07ER64457; SC0007071
- OSTI ID:
- 1863081
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
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Related Subjects
limber pine
treeline
experimental warming
moisture stress
EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS
EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > ECOSYSTEMS
EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > VEGETATION
EARTH SCIENCE > CLIMATE INDICATORS > CLIMATE FEEDBACKS
Silhouette area
Seedling photos
Seedling scans
LICOR output
Gas exchange
Net assimilation
Anet
Rd
Ci/Ca
Conductance
Transpiration flux rate
Vapor pressure deficit
Photosynthetically active radiation
PAR
Midday water potential
MATLAB code
Meteorology
Air temperature
Relative humidity
Wind speed
Volumetric water content
Soil temperature
Seedling mortality
FvFm
Fluorescence