Dissertation Research: Plant Ecology in Changing Climate, Patterns of species loss and spring phenology in Acadia National Park, Maine

论文研究：缅因州阿卡迪亚国家公园气候变化中的植物生态、物种丧失模式和春季物候

• 批准号: 1501266
• 负责人: Richard Primack
• 金额: $ 1.28万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-06-01 至 2019-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1501266&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Plant; Ecology; Changing

This project seeks to understand how plant species in Acadia National Park, Maine are responding to climate change. Research in southern New England has found a connection between phenology - the timing of biological events - and species loss in plant communities. Plants with flexible flowering phenology (i.e. blooming earlier in warmer years, and later in cooler years) are less likely to decline in abundance or disappear from the landscape. In Acadia, the researchers used historical data from the late 19th century to record patterns in species loss over the past 120 years. This project will monitor leaf out and flowering phenology in Acadia to record how plants are responding to changing temperatures and explore connections between phenology and species loss. The researchers will work with undergraduates from Maine colleges and universities to monitor leaf out and flowering phenology for thirty plant species on three observational transects that traverse three peaks within the National Park, as well as three experimental transplant gardens along an elevational gradient along one peak. In addition, the researchers will develop a citizen science opportunity for hikers to participate in this research on the three peaks. There is a demonstrated connection between advancing spring plant phenology and warming temperatures in temperate northeast North America. However, plants display differential phenological responses to warming depending on taxa, population, habitat, elevation, and/or geographic location. Phenology is a key plant trait included in many climate vulnerability assessment methods, but its use in these assessments has not been rigorously evaluated, in part because researchers need a better understanding of the environmental controls on phenology at a species level. Here this is achieved through an interdisciplinary approach merging historical ecology, observational and experimental fieldwork, and citizen science in Acadia National Park. In this project, observational monitoring on transects will quantify the relationship between spring temperatures and shifts in phenology at the species level for a community of thirty common plant species in Acadia. Researchers will use these results to facilitate a regional comparison of phenology and species loss for conspecific populations in Acadia versus Concord, Massachusetts. Three reciprocal transplant gardens at three elevations on one peak will test the relative effects of environmental cues and genetic differences at the population level on spring phenology for three understory plant species in Acadia. This project will further our understanding of the ecological effects of climate change, educate visitors about climate change research, and inform resource management in Acadia National Park.

该项目旨在了解缅因州阿卡迪亚国家公园的植物物种如何应对气候变化。在新英格兰南部进行的研究发现了物候学——生物事件发生的时间——与植物群落物种损失之间的联系。具有灵活开花物候的植物（即在温暖的年份较早开花，在寒冷的年份较晚开花）的数量减少或从景观中消失的可能性较小。在阿卡迪亚，研究人员使用19世纪末的历史数据来记录过去120年来物种损失的模式。该项目将监测阿卡迪亚的叶片脱落和开花物候，记录植物对温度变化的反应，并探索物候与物种灭绝之间的联系。研究人员将与缅因州大专院校的本科生合作，在横跨国家公园三座山峰的三个观察样带上，以及沿着一座山峰的海拔梯度的三个实验移植花园上，监测30种植物的叶片和开花物候。此外，研究人员将开发一个公民科学机会，让徒步旅行者参与到这三座山峰的研究中来。在北美东北部温带地区，春季植物物候的提前和气温的升高之间存在着明显的联系。然而，植物对变暖表现出不同的物候反应，这取决于分类群、种群、栖息地、海拔和/或地理位置。物候是许多气候脆弱性评估方法中包含的一个关键植物性状，但其在这些评估中的应用尚未得到严格评估，部分原因是研究人员需要在物种水平上更好地了解环境对物候的控制。在这里，这是通过跨学科的方法来实现的，结合了历史生态学，观察和实验田野调查，以及阿卡迪亚国家公园的公民科学。在本项目中，对阿卡迪亚30种常见植物群落的样带观测监测将在物种水平上量化春季温度与物候变化之间的关系。研究人员将利用这些结果促进阿卡迪亚与马萨诸塞州康科德同种种群的物候和物种损失的区域比较。以阿卡迪亚地区3种林下植物为研究对象，在同一峰顶3个海拔高度的3个相互移植园中，测试了种群水平上环境因素和遗传差异对春季物候的相对影响。这个项目将进一步加深我们对气候变化的生态影响的理解，教育游客有关气候变化的研究，并为阿卡迪亚国家公园的资源管理提供信息。