TY - JOUR
T1 - Plant functional traits mediate reproductive phenology and success in response to experimental warming and snow addition in Tibet
AU - Dorji, Tsechoe
AU - Totland, Ørjan
AU - Moe, Stein R.
AU - Hopping, Kelly A.
AU - Pan, Jianbin
AU - Klein, Julia A.
N1 - Enter your email address below. If your address has been previously registered, you will receive an email with instructions on how to reset your password. If you don't receive an email, you should register as a new user
PY - 2013/2
Y1 - 2013/2
N2 - Global climate change is predicted to have large impacts on the phenology and reproduction of alpine plants, which will have important implications for plant demography and community interactions, trophic dynamics, ecosystem energy balance, and human livelihoods. In this article we report results of a 3-year, fully factorial experimental study exploring how warming, snow addition, and their combination affect reproductive phenology, effort, and success of four alpine plant species belonging to three different life forms in a semiarid, alpine meadow ecosystem on the central Tibetan Plateau. Our results indicate that warming and snow addition change reproductive phenology and success, but responses are not uniform across species. Moreover, traits associated with resource acquisition, such as rooting depth and life history (early vs. late flowering), mediate plant phenology, and reproductive responses to changing climatic conditions. Specifically, we found that warming delayed the reproductive phenology and decreased number of inflorescences of Kobresia pygmaea C. B. Clarke, a shallow-rooted, early-flowering plant, which may be mainly constrained by upper-soil moisture availability. Because K. pygmaea is the dominant species in the alpine meadow ecosystem, these results may have important implications for ecosystem dynamics and for pastoralists and wildlife in the region.
AB - Global climate change is predicted to have large impacts on the phenology and reproduction of alpine plants, which will have important implications for plant demography and community interactions, trophic dynamics, ecosystem energy balance, and human livelihoods. In this article we report results of a 3-year, fully factorial experimental study exploring how warming, snow addition, and their combination affect reproductive phenology, effort, and success of four alpine plant species belonging to three different life forms in a semiarid, alpine meadow ecosystem on the central Tibetan Plateau. Our results indicate that warming and snow addition change reproductive phenology and success, but responses are not uniform across species. Moreover, traits associated with resource acquisition, such as rooting depth and life history (early vs. late flowering), mediate plant phenology, and reproductive responses to changing climatic conditions. Specifically, we found that warming delayed the reproductive phenology and decreased number of inflorescences of Kobresia pygmaea C. B. Clarke, a shallow-rooted, early-flowering plant, which may be mainly constrained by upper-soil moisture availability. Because K. pygmaea is the dominant species in the alpine meadow ecosystem, these results may have important implications for ecosystem dynamics and for pastoralists and wildlife in the region.
KW - Alpine meadow
KW - Climate change
KW - Flowering phenology
KW - Kobresia pygmaea
KW - Soil moisture
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84871931551&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12059
U2 - 10.1111/gcb.12059
DO - 10.1111/gcb.12059
M3 - Article
C2 - 23504784
AN - SCOPUS:84871931551
SN - 1354-1013
VL - 19
SP - 459
EP - 472
JO - Global Change Biology
JF - Global Change Biology
IS - 2
ER -