Plants in a warmer world The Good, the Bad and the Ugly · •~24,000 ft of copper power cable...

Plants in a warmer world – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Dr. Rebecca Montgomery Associate professor

Artur Stefanski Research fellow

Department of Forest Resources

University of Minnesota

Collaborative effort

Funded by: Department of Energy, Hubachek Wilderness Research Foundation, Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, USDA-AFRI, College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Sciences

Forest imageWhat happens

when we turn up

the heat?

Boreal Forest

Warming at an

Ecotone in Danger

Northern, boreal species

Abies balsamea Betulapapyrifera

Pinusbanksiana

Picea glauca Populustremuloides

Acer rubrum Quercusmacrocarpa

Pinus strobusAcer saccharum Quercus rubra

Southern, temperate species

Northern, boreal species

Balsam fir Paper birchJack pineWhite spruce Trembling aspen

Red mapleBur oak

White pineSugar maple Red oak

Southern, temperate species

buried cables

ceramic heaters

Real time data

2009

ambient, + 1.7 and +3.4 °C

Time of day

Soil

tem

pera

ture

(°C

)

some facts & figures

• two sites

• 11 tree species, 72 plots, ~8,000 tree seedlings

• two canopy treatments (open and closed)

• no winter warming

• warmed 208 to 244 days per year ≈ 8 months

• volumetric water content reduced by

– 10.6% in +1.7 ˚C

– 18.2% in +3.4 ˚C

• 40% of rainfall reduced throughout the growing season

The Good

Acclimation of respiration and photosynthesis

physiological response to

temperature

Growing in +3.4°C

conditions

Res

pir

atio

n r

ate

Growing in ambient

conditions

10 20 30Leaf measurement temperature °C

Reich et al. 2016

Temperature (°C)

Net

ph

oto

syn

thes

is

26 29 temperature optima

Growing in +3.4 C

conditions

Growing in ambient

conditions

10 20 30 40

Tem

pera

ture

optim

a °

C

14

16

18

20

22

24

26

28 ambient

warmed (+3.4 °C)

Populus

trem

uloide

s

Betula

papy

rifer

a

Acer r

ubru

m

Que

rcus

mac

roca

rpa

Rha

mnu

s ca

thar

tica

Acer s

acch

arum

Que

rcus

rubr

a

BOREALTEMPERATE

Sendall et al. 2015

The Bad• Increased soil

respiration

• Change in wood properties

• Change in mycorrhizae abundance

Soil

resp

irat

ion

(µ

mo

lCO

2m

-2s-1

)

Increase in soil respiration

Change in wood properties

Change in mycorrhizae composition

The Ugly

• Effects of soil moisture

• Phenology

Open Canopy Closed Canopy

Ambient

+3.4

Quercus rubra – April 27, 2010

Open Closed

Ambient

+3.4

Quercus rubra – May 4, 2010

Open Closed

Ambient

+3.4

Quercus rubra – May 11, 2010

Open Closed

Ambient

+3.4

Quercus rubra– May 18, 2010

Betula papyrifera

Populus tremuloides

Acer rubrum

Acer saccharum

Quercus macrocarpa

Quercus rubra

Bo

real

Tem

per

ate

Ap

ril 3

0

May

10

May

20

May

30

Sep

t 7

Sep

t 1

7

Sep

t 2

7

Oct

7

Oct

17

…Day of year…

Extended growing season

+3.4⁰ C

ambient

phenology of shoot growth

earlier shoot growth

VWC = 0.09 VWC = 0.21

June, 2009VERY DRY

August, 2009WET

ambient +3.4 ambient +3.4 ambient +3.4 ambient +3.4

Ph

oto

syn

thet

ic r

ate

(um

olm

-2s-1

)

Ph

oto

syn

thet

ic r

ate

(um

olm

-2s-1

)

Perc

en

t (%

) in

crea

se in

p

ho

tosy

nth

esis

wit

h w

arm

ing

Reich, Montgomery et al. 2015

Northern,

boreal species

Southern,

temperate species

Reich, Montgomery et al. 2015

Northern,

boreal species

Southern,

temperate species

Reich, Montgomery et al. 2015

Species at WARM

range limit will do poorly

Species at COOL range

limit will thrive

View from Oberg Mountain, MN, Duluth News Tribune

http://forestecology.cfans.umn.edu/Research/B4WARMED/index.htm

Thanks

Acknowledgements:Co-PIs: Reich, Montgomery, Hobbie, Rich, & OleksynThanks to many researchers and staff at UMN campus and Cloquet Forestry Center who supported this project in various ways:, Wythers, Li, Pinahs, Eddy, Sendall, Fisichelli, Wright, Buyarski, Buschena, Barrott, Pike, Severs, Blanchard, Gill.

Special thanks to the Karen Rice & Rai Bermudez who help run the show, working long hours to troubleshoot, supervise, organize, collect data, feed, console and in all ways make this work possible.

Special thanks to the many B4Warmed interns who tirelessly collected data over the years and make this work possible.

Other Collaborators: Zhao, Hou, Wei, Liao (China); Pierce (MN DNR); Brzostek/Finzi (Boston Univ); Bradford (USFS); Eisenhauer/Thakur/Ferlian (Germany); Zhou (U Oklahoma); Coyle/Raffa/Lindroth/Jamieson (UW-Madison)

Funding provided by: U.S. Department of Energy Program on Ecological Research; University of Minnesota, College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resources Sciences; Wilderness Research Foundation and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

B4WARMED in numbers

• ~30,000 trees planted another ~4.3 k to be planted this year

• ~400,000 seeds sown • ~ over 4,000 temperature response curves

measured• ~24,000 net photosynthesis survey

measurements• ~800 Aci response curves• ~ Up to date 1,200,000 of biological

measurements data points

Facts 2009 - 2011

B4WARMED in numbers cont…

• ~12,000 ft thermocouple cable

• ~7,200 ft of warming cable

• ~5,000 ft of twisted pair communication cable

• ~24,000 ft of copper power cable

• ~2,000 ft of aluminum power cable

• ~ 360,000 miles driven – 15 times around the globe

• ~ 90,000 person hours rough estimate

• ~ 120 billion datalogger measurements

Facts 2009 - 2011

* Department of Energy