Population-Level Differences in Pinus monophylla Whole-Plant Seedling Strategies Under Varying Precipitation Pulses
type: CreativeWork
description: As climate change exacerbates forest mortality, subsequent tree regeneration depends on the presence of functional traits that allow seedlings to survive selective pressures from altered climate regimes. Many widely-distributed plant species exhibit intraspecific trait variation reflecting adaptation to local environments. Populations may vary in traits that regulate seedling growth and resource acquisition in response to resource pulse regimes, and some adaptations to historic conditions may become maladaptive under projected climate scenarios. Singleleaf pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla) is a dominant tree species in the Intermountain West, USA, that demonstrates intraspecific trait variation along multiple climatic gradients, most notably climatic water deficit and amount of summer precipitation. Climatic water deficit varies considerably across P. monophylla's range, increasing from north to south and decreasing with increased elevation. Along a gradient of precipitation seasonality, northwestern populations receive most precipitation in the winter and those in the southeast receive more in the summer. Anthropogenic global climate change continues to alter aridity and precipitation regimes which may require plants to change how they respond to the environment. Previous studies found trait variation organized along a summer precipitation gradient, but it is unknown whether this is in response to precipitation seasonality or to the pulsed nature of summer rainfall. Of particular interest is how seedlings from different seed sources will utilize water under altered precipitation regimes with varying pulse magnitudes and frequencies.We conducted a greenhouse common garden experiment to explore possible local adaptations associated with P. monophylla seedling responses to varying watering pulse regimes. We used seeds from four lower treeline sites representing different combinations of climatic water deficit and summer precipitation amounts. After the seedlings were est…
abstract: As climate change exacerbates forest mortality, subsequent tree regeneration depends on the presence of functional traits that allow seedlings to survive selective pressures from altered climate regimes. Many widely-distributed plant species exhibit intraspecific trait variation reflecting adaptation to local environments. Populations may vary in traits that regulate seedling growth and resource acquisition in response to resource pulse regimes, and some adaptations to historic conditions may become maladaptive under projected climate scenarios. Singleleaf pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla) is a dominant tree species in the Intermountain West, USA, that demonstrates intraspecific trait variation along multiple climatic gradients, most notably climatic water deficit and amount of summer precipitation. Climatic water deficit varies considerably across P. monophylla's range, increasing from north to south and decreasing with increased elevation. Along a gradient of precipitation seasonality, northwestern populations receive most precipitation in the winter and those in the southeast receive more in the summer. Anthropogenic global climate change continues to alter aridity and precipitation regimes which may require plants to change how they respond to the environment. Previous studies found trait variation organized along a summer precipitation gradient, but it is unknown whether this is in response to precipitation seasonality or to the pulsed nature of summer rainfall. Of particular interest is how seedlings from different seed sources will utilize water under altered precipitation regimes with varying pulse magnitudes and frequencies.We conducted a greenhouse common garden experiment to explore possible local adaptations associated with P. monophylla seedling responses to varying watering pulse regimes. We used seeds from four lower treeline sites representing different combinations of climatic water deficit and summer precipitation amounts. After the seedlings were est…
author: Adkins, Jeremy Steven
keywords: Common garden, Intraspecific trait variation, Pinus monophylla, Precipitation pulses, Resource-use strategies, Tree regeneration
date published: 2023
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:46:19Z
provider: University of Nevada - Reno
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Nevada - Reno

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11714/8503