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Abstract Questions Woody encroachment into grasslands is a worldwide phenomenon partially influenced by climate change, including extreme weather events.
Larrea tridentata is a common shrub throughout the warm deserts of North America that has encroached into grasslands over the past 150 years. Physiological measurements suggest that the northern distribution ofL. tridentata is limited by cold temperatures; thus extreme winter events may slow or reverse shrub expansion. We tested this limitation by measuring the response of individualL. tridentata shrubs to an extreme winter cold (−31°C) event to assess shrub mortality and rate of recovery of surviving shrubs.Location Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro County, New Mexico, USA.
Methods Canopy dieback and recovery following an extreme cold event were measured for 869 permanently marked individual
L. tridentata shrubs in grass–shrub ecotone and shrubland sites. Individual shrubs were monitored for amount of canopy dieback, rate of recovery, and seed set for three growing seasons after the freeze event.Results Shrubs rapidly suffered a nearly complete loss of canopy leaf area across all sites. Although canopy loss was high, mortality was low and 99% of shrubs resprouted during the first growing season after the freeze event. Regrowth rates were similar within ecotone and shrubland sites, even when damage by frost was larger in the latter. After three years of recovery,
L. tridentata canopies had regrown on average 23–83% of the original pre‐freeze canopy sizes across the sites.Conclusions We conclude that isolated extreme cold events may temporarily decrease shrubland biomass but they do not slow or reverse shrub expansion. These events are less likely to occur in the future as regional temperatures increase under climate change.
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Ecosystem‐Level Energy and Water Budgets Are Resilient to Canopy Mortality in Sparse Semiarid Biomesmore » « less
Abstract Climate‐driven woody vegetation mortality is a defining feature of semiarid biomes that drives fundamental changes in ecosystem structure. However, the observed impacts of woody mortality on ecosystem‐scale energy and water budgets and the responses of surviving vegetation are highly variable among studies in water‐limited environments. A previous girdling manipulation experiment in a piñon‐juniper woodland suggested that although ecosystem‐scale evapotranspiration was not altered by large‐scale piñon mortality, soil water content decreased and the surviving juniper experienced greater water stress than juniper in an undisturbed woodland. Here we experimentally explored to what extent mortality‐induced changes in energy balance components can explain these results. We compared energy fluxes measured above two adjacent piñon‐juniper woodlands where piñon girdling was implemented at one site and the other subsequently experienced large‐scale natural piñon mortality. We found that the mortality‐induced decrease in canopy area was not sufficient to alter surface reflectance, roughness, and partitioning between energy budget components at both sites. A radiative transfer model estimated that because of the sparse premortality canopy, surface reflectance is more sensitive to a large increase in understory leaf area than further loss of crown area. Increased water stress in the remaining juniper following both mortality events can be explained by an increase in radiation on the ground that promoted higher soil temperature and evaporation. We found similar responses of ecosystem and tree‐level functions to both girdling and natural mortality. This suggests that girdling is an appropriate approach to explore the impact of tree mortality on ecosystem structure, function, and energy balance.
