Cargando…

Experimental Warming Changes Phenology and Shortens Growing Season of the Dominant Invasive Plant Bromus tectorum (Cheatgrass)

Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) has successfully invaded and established throughout the western United States. Bromus tectorum grows early in the season and this early growth allows B. tectorum to outcompete native species, which has led to dramatic shifts in ecosystem function and plant community comp...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Howell, Armin, Winkler, Daniel E., Phillips, Michala L., McNellis, Brandon, Reed, Sasha C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7593257/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33178240
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.570001
_version_ 1783601344753434624
author Howell, Armin
Winkler, Daniel E.
Phillips, Michala L.
McNellis, Brandon
Reed, Sasha C.
author_facet Howell, Armin
Winkler, Daniel E.
Phillips, Michala L.
McNellis, Brandon
Reed, Sasha C.
author_sort Howell, Armin
collection PubMed
description Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) has successfully invaded and established throughout the western United States. Bromus tectorum grows early in the season and this early growth allows B. tectorum to outcompete native species, which has led to dramatic shifts in ecosystem function and plant community composition after B. tectorum invades. If the phenology of native species is unable to track changing climate as effectively as B. tectorum’s phenology then climate change may facilitate further invasion. To better understand how B. tectorum phenology will respond to future climate, we tracked the timing of B. tectorum germination, flowering, and senescence over a decade in three in situ climate manipulation experiments with treatments that increased temperatures (2°C and 4°C above ambient), altered precipitation regimes, or applied a combination of each. Linear mixed-effects models were used to analyze treatment effects on the timing of germination, flowering, senescence, and on the length of the vegetative growing season (time from germination to flowering) in each experiment. Altered precipitation treatments were only applied in early years of the study and neither precipitation treatments nor the treatments’ legacies significantly affected B. tectorum phenology. The timing of germination did not significantly vary between any warming treatments and their respective ambient plots. However, plots that were warmed had advances in the timing of B. tectorum flowering and senescence, as well as shorter vegetative growing seasons. The phenological advances caused by warming increased with increasing degrees of experimental warming. The greatest differences between warmed and ambient plots were seen in the length of the vegetative growing season, which was shortened by approximately 12 and 7 days in the +4°C and +2°C warming levels, respectively. The effects of experimental warming were small compared to the effects of interannual climate variation, suggesting that interactive controls and the timing of multiple climatic factors are important in determining B. tectorum phenology. Taken together, these results help elucidate how B. tectorum phenology may respond to future climate, increasing our predictive capacity for estimating when to time B. tectorum control efforts and how to more effectively manage this exotic annual grass.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7593257
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-75932572020-11-10 Experimental Warming Changes Phenology and Shortens Growing Season of the Dominant Invasive Plant Bromus tectorum (Cheatgrass) Howell, Armin Winkler, Daniel E. Phillips, Michala L. McNellis, Brandon Reed, Sasha C. Front Plant Sci Plant Science Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) has successfully invaded and established throughout the western United States. Bromus tectorum grows early in the season and this early growth allows B. tectorum to outcompete native species, which has led to dramatic shifts in ecosystem function and plant community composition after B. tectorum invades. If the phenology of native species is unable to track changing climate as effectively as B. tectorum’s phenology then climate change may facilitate further invasion. To better understand how B. tectorum phenology will respond to future climate, we tracked the timing of B. tectorum germination, flowering, and senescence over a decade in three in situ climate manipulation experiments with treatments that increased temperatures (2°C and 4°C above ambient), altered precipitation regimes, or applied a combination of each. Linear mixed-effects models were used to analyze treatment effects on the timing of germination, flowering, senescence, and on the length of the vegetative growing season (time from germination to flowering) in each experiment. Altered precipitation treatments were only applied in early years of the study and neither precipitation treatments nor the treatments’ legacies significantly affected B. tectorum phenology. The timing of germination did not significantly vary between any warming treatments and their respective ambient plots. However, plots that were warmed had advances in the timing of B. tectorum flowering and senescence, as well as shorter vegetative growing seasons. The phenological advances caused by warming increased with increasing degrees of experimental warming. The greatest differences between warmed and ambient plots were seen in the length of the vegetative growing season, which was shortened by approximately 12 and 7 days in the +4°C and +2°C warming levels, respectively. The effects of experimental warming were small compared to the effects of interannual climate variation, suggesting that interactive controls and the timing of multiple climatic factors are important in determining B. tectorum phenology. Taken together, these results help elucidate how B. tectorum phenology may respond to future climate, increasing our predictive capacity for estimating when to time B. tectorum control efforts and how to more effectively manage this exotic annual grass. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-10-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7593257/ /pubmed/33178240 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.570001 Text en Copyright © 2020 Howell, Winkler, Phillips, McNellis and Reed. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Plant Science
Howell, Armin
Winkler, Daniel E.
Phillips, Michala L.
McNellis, Brandon
Reed, Sasha C.
Experimental Warming Changes Phenology and Shortens Growing Season of the Dominant Invasive Plant Bromus tectorum (Cheatgrass)
title Experimental Warming Changes Phenology and Shortens Growing Season of the Dominant Invasive Plant Bromus tectorum (Cheatgrass)
title_full Experimental Warming Changes Phenology and Shortens Growing Season of the Dominant Invasive Plant Bromus tectorum (Cheatgrass)
title_fullStr Experimental Warming Changes Phenology and Shortens Growing Season of the Dominant Invasive Plant Bromus tectorum (Cheatgrass)
title_full_unstemmed Experimental Warming Changes Phenology and Shortens Growing Season of the Dominant Invasive Plant Bromus tectorum (Cheatgrass)
title_short Experimental Warming Changes Phenology and Shortens Growing Season of the Dominant Invasive Plant Bromus tectorum (Cheatgrass)
title_sort experimental warming changes phenology and shortens growing season of the dominant invasive plant bromus tectorum (cheatgrass)
topic Plant Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7593257/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33178240
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.570001
work_keys_str_mv AT howellarmin experimentalwarmingchangesphenologyandshortensgrowingseasonofthedominantinvasiveplantbromustectorumcheatgrass
AT winklerdaniele experimentalwarmingchangesphenologyandshortensgrowingseasonofthedominantinvasiveplantbromustectorumcheatgrass
AT phillipsmichalal experimentalwarmingchangesphenologyandshortensgrowingseasonofthedominantinvasiveplantbromustectorumcheatgrass
AT mcnellisbrandon experimentalwarmingchangesphenologyandshortensgrowingseasonofthedominantinvasiveplantbromustectorumcheatgrass
AT reedsashac experimentalwarmingchangesphenologyandshortensgrowingseasonofthedominantinvasiveplantbromustectorumcheatgrass