Data from: "Lab and Field Warming Similarly Advance Germination Date and Limit Germination Rate for High and Low Elevation Provenances of Two Widespread Subalpine Conifers"

Dataset · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.15485/1843043· OSTI ID:1843043

Kueppers, Lara M. ^[1]; Faist, Akasha ^[2]; Ferrenberg, Scott ^[2]; Castanha, Cristina ^[3]; Conlisk, Erin ^[4]; Wolf, Jennifer ^[5]

---

1. University of California Berkeley; University of California Berkeley
2. New Mexico State University
3. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
4. Point Blue Conservation Science
5. University of California Merced

This archive contains data used to draw conclusions in “Lab and Field Warming Similarly Advance Germination Date and Limit Germination Rate for High and Low Elevation Provenances of Two Widespread Subalpine Conifers”, by Kueppers et al. 2017. Cone collection and field experiments were conducted on Niwot Ridge, Colorado, with the latter completed within the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment (ATWE). Laboratory germination experiments were conducted at the University of California Merced. Geospatial files are also provided for additional geographical context.There are four data file formats in this package: comma-separated values (.csv), Microsoft Excel (.xlsx), keyhole markup language (.kml), and ESRI shapefile (.shp). The latter two are geospatial file formats. .csv files can be opened using any simple text editor program such as TextEdit (Mac) and Notepad (Windows), and .xlsx files can be opened using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. The .kml file contains coordinate data, and is compatible with Google Earth and Google Maps. ESRI shapefiles (.shp) are compatible with any geospatial software able to read the file type, such as QGIS and ESRI’s ArcGIS Suite. This data user’s guide is available in as a .pdf, and can be opened using software such as Adobe Acrobat Reader.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Accurately predicting upslope shifts in subalpine tree ranges with warming requires understanding how future forest populations will be affected by climate change, as these are the seed sources for new tree line and alpine populations. Early life history stages are particularly sensitive to climate and are also influenced by genetic variation among populations. We tested the climate sensitivity of germination and initial development for two widely distributed subalpine conifers, using controlled-environment growth chambers with one temperature regime from subalpine forest in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and one 5 °C warmer, and two soil moisture levels. We tracked germination rate and timing, rate of seedling development, and seedling morphology for two seed provenances separated by ~300 m elevation. Warming advanced germination timing and initial seedling development by a total of ~2 weeks, advances comparable to mean differences between provenances. Advances were similar for both provenances and species; however, warming reduced the overall germination rate, as did low soil moisture, only for Picea engelmannii. A three-year field warming and watering experiment planted with the same species and provenances yielded responses qualitatively consistent with the lab trials. Together these experiments indicate that in a warmer, drier climate, P. engelmannii germination, and thus regeneration, could decline, which could lead to declining subalpine forest populations, while Pinus flexilis forest populations could remain robust as a seed source for upslope range shifts.

• Research Organization: Environmental System Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem; 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
• OSTI ID: 1843043
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Autologger microclimate data
Climate change experiment
Cotyledon count
EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS
EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > VEGETATION
Geospatial data
Germination
Growth chamber relative humidity
Growth chamber temperature
Niwot Ridge
Picea engelmannii
Pinus flexilis
Root length
Seed germination
Seedling development
Seedling morphology
Seedling mortality
Seedling survey
Seedling survival
Shoot mass