Collaborative Research: Can disturbance history predict plant species responses to environmental change?

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One of the greatest challenges of our time is anticipating how environmental change will alter the types of plants and animals we find within an ecosystem. At northern latitudes, winters have become shorter, snow depth has decreased, and temperatures have become more variable. This research project uses and continues long-term field surveys (65+ years) to determine whether these changing winters have affected the types of plants found within grassland communities. This work examines which characteristics of species may make them most vulnerable to being lost and how land management activities, such as prescribed fires, may prevent their loss. Project investigators will develop courses to train students about ecological complexity, and will develop workshops and webinars with local and national groups to inform the public about grassland ecology and conservation. Overall, this research examines how plant characteristics may influence their loss and persistence and determines how to best manage grasslands and savannas, two globally threatened and economically important ecosystems. This research examines the role that the functional traits of plants play in the responses and persistence of grassland species to changing winter conditions and environmental disturbances. Using data from historic and current surveys, this project examines how grassland plant communities in the North Eastern United States have changed over the past 65+ years and the degree to which these changes are explained by the frequency of fire disturbances and changing climatic conditions. Using a functional traits approach, manipulative field experiments will be used to determine species responses to disturbances (burning, mowing), winter conditions (snow depth), and their interactions, on species persistence, establishment, and community stability. This work examines the importance of freeze tolerance as a persistence related trait and tests the hypothesis that fire regimes are beneficial to preserving grassland diversity through their selection of stress-tolerant plants and influence on plant establishment and colonization rates. This work adds to our understanding of the ecology and management of grassland and savanna ecosystems and would make functional trait data available through several on-line resources.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.