Invasion Increases Ecosystem Sensitivity to Drought in Southern California

Invasion Increases Ecosystem Sensitivity to Drought in Southern California
Author: Ellen Huiskamp Esch
Publisher:
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN:
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Vegetation feedbacks to ecosystem processes represent a major source of uncertainty in climate change scenarios. In Southern California's historically shrub-dominated ecosystems, increasing drought severity and invasions by exotic species represent two major consequences of global change, but it is unclear how they interact to influence ecosystem processes. In this dissertation, I tested the hypothesis that invasion can alter ecosystem response to drought. Chapter 1 shows that drought reduces ecosystem capacity for carbon gain, especially in areas with invaded vegetation. Invasion increased the phenological sensitivity of green-up and senescence dates and shortened the growing season in response to drought. This demonstrates that invasion can influence ecosystem responses to climate change when native and invading species differ in phenological sensitivity to environmental cues. Chapter 2 moves belowground and shows in a laboratory experiment that soil moisture limits microbial respiration and extracellular enzyme activity. Exotic litter stimulated microbial activity more than native litter, but only under high soil moisture. This suggests that invasion can increase microbial activity in soil, an effect most apparent in high rainfall years. Chapter 3 relates these findings to litter decomposition. Within a field experiment, invasion increased above-ground litter decomposition sensitivity to drought via two mechanisms: 1) increased litter quality, and 2) reduced canopy density allowing for greater photodegradation of the litter layer. Below-ground, drought limited root decomposition rates by restricting microbial activity. These results demonstrate that litter quality, litter position, site aridity, and exposure to photodegradation interact to control litter decomposition rates. Chapter 4 evaluates potential shifts in the relative role of biotic and abiotic decomposition processes and shows that ultraviolet (UV) radiation differentially affects mass loss depending on litter identity. This chapter indicates that UV radiation influence on litter decomposition is less generalizable across species than originally proposed and suggests that the influence of abiotic decomposition depends more on canopy architecture and other microclimate influences than site aridity. In sum, this dissertation shows that invasion strongly alters ecosystem response to drought, as measured through productivity, decomposition, and microbial functionality, and indicates that predictions of ecosystem response to future climate change should account for invasive species' projected spread.

Ecosystems of California

Ecosystems of California
Author: Harold Mooney
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 1008
Release: 2016-01-19
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0520278801
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This long-anticipated reference and sourcebook for CaliforniaÕs remarkable ecological abundance provides an integrated assessment of each major ecosystem typeÑits distribution, structure, function, and management. A comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about this biologically diverse state, Ecosystems of California covers the state from oceans to mountaintops using multiple lenses: past and present, flora and fauna, aquatic and terrestrial, natural and managed. Each chapter evaluates natural processes for a specific ecosystem, describes drivers of change, and discusses how that ecosystem may be altered in the future. This book also explores the drivers of CaliforniaÕs ecological patterns and the history of the stateÕs various ecosystems, outlining how the challenges of climate change and invasive species and opportunities for regulation and stewardship could potentially affect the stateÕs ecosystems. The text explicitly incorporates both human impacts and conservation and restoration efforts and shows how ecosystems support human well-being. Edited by two esteemed ecosystem ecologists and with overviews by leading experts on each ecosystem, this definitive work will be indispensable for natural resource management and conservation professionals as well as for undergraduate or graduate students of CaliforniaÕs environment and curious naturalists.

Invasive Species in Forests and Rangelands of the United States

Invasive Species in Forests and Rangelands of the United States
Author: Therese M. Poland
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 455
Release: 2021-02-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030453677
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This open access book describes the serious threat of invasive species to native ecosystems. Invasive species have caused and will continue to cause enormous ecological and economic damage with ever increasing world trade. This multi-disciplinary book, written by over 100 national experts, presents the latest research on a wide range of natural science and social science fields that explore the ecology, impacts, and practical tools for management of invasive species. It covers species of all taxonomic groups from insects and pathogens, to plants, vertebrates, and aquatic organisms that impact a diversity of habitats in forests, rangelands and grasslands of the United States. It is well-illustrated, provides summaries of the most important invasive species and issues impacting all regions of the country, and includes a comprehensive primary reference list for each topic. This scientific synthesis provides the cultural, economic, scientific and social context for addressing environmental challenges posed by invasive species and will be a valuable resource for scholars, policy makers, natural resource managers and practitioners.

Invasion as an Opportunity to Study Community Assembly in Response to Competition, Recovery from Drought, Phenology

Invasion as an Opportunity to Study Community Assembly in Response to Competition, Recovery from Drought, Phenology
Author: Chandler Puritty
Publisher:
Total Pages: 98
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN:
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Species interactions in invaded ecosystems are important to understand for predicting future changes in the system and are particularly crucial in the context of global climate change and increasing climate variability. Southern California's predominately shrub dominated ecosystems are being invaded by exotic annual species and are predicted to experience increasingly severe drought. It remains unclear how these shifts in species composition combined with inter-annual climate variability may leave a legacy that affects ecosystem functioning beyond the duration of the disturbance. In this dissertation, I tested the hypothesis that invasion can alter ecosystem function and recovery from drought. Chapter 1 shows that traits rather than fitness differences are most important when predicting competitive outcomes between native and exotic focal species. I found that different combinations of traits may aid in determining which species are most likely to strongly compete with invaders versus those that will be competitively suppressed by invaders. This demonstrates the complexity of the interactions between the native and exotic species in their immediate interactions. Chapter 2 scales up to see how these competitive interactions play out at the ecosystem level in a natural system. I found that native biomass was more resistant to changes in response to drought but that exotic biomass was more resilient in returning to pre-drought abundances in its recovery from drought. The greater decline in exotic biomass with drought was likely driven by life-history differences between native and exotic species in this system, where exotic species are more likely to have an annual life history, and native species are more likely to be perennial. This chapter demonstrated that when exotic and native species differ in life history they may also vary in their resistance and resiliency in response to climate extremes such as drought. Chapter 3 documents how the shifting species composition observed in chapter 2 influenced ecosystem functioning during recovery from drought, particularly with regard to phenology. I found that the most severe drought plots exhibited higher abundances of species with longer blooming phenology duration and ecosystem level shift towards later phenology. I showed that drought can leave a multi-year legacy on these communities that continues once the disturbance has ended. In sum this dissertation shows that invasion alters ecosystem recovery from severe drought as measured by productivity, biomass, and ecosystem level phenology and indicates the importance of evaluating the impact of a disturbance even once recovery has begun.

Terrestrial Vegetation of California, 3rd Edition

Terrestrial Vegetation of California, 3rd Edition
Author: Michael Barbour
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 732
Release: 2007-07-17
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0520249550
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"This completely new edition of Terrestrial Vegetation of California clearly documents the extraordinary complexity and richness of the plant communities and of the state and the forces that shape them. This volume is a storehouse of information of value to anyone concerned with meeting the challenge of understanding, managing or conserving these unique plant communities under the growing threats of climate change, biological invasions and development."—Harold Mooney, Professor of Environmental Biology, Stanford University "The plants of California are under threat like never before. Traditional pressures of development and invasive species have been joined by a newly-recognized threat: human-caused climate change. It is essential that we thoroughly understand current plant community dynamics in order to have a hope of conserving them. This book represents an important, well-timed advance in knowledge of the vegetation of this diverse state and is an essential resource for professionals, students, and the general public alike."—Brent Mishler, Director of the University & Jepson Herbaria and Professor of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley

California Grasslands

California Grasslands
Author: Mark R. Stromberg
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2007-12-03
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780520252202
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"This highly synthetic and scholarly work brings together new and important scientific contributions by leading experts on a rich diversity of topics concerning the history, ecology, and conservation of California's endangered grasslands. The editors and authors have succeeded admirably in drawing from a great wealth of recent research to produce a widely accessible and compelling, state-of-the-art treatment of this fascinating subject. Anyone interested in Californian biodiversity or grassland ecosystems in general will find this book to be an invaluable resource and a major inspiration for further research, management, and restoration efforts."—Bruce G. Baldwin, W. L. Jepson Professor and Curator, UC Berkeley "Grasses and grasslands are among the most important elements of the California landscape. This is their book, embodying the kind of integrated view needed for all ecological communities in California. Approaches ranging across an incredibly broad spectrum -- paleontology and human history; basic science and practical management techniques; systematics, community ecology, physiology, and genetics; physical factors such as water, soil nutrients, atmospherics, and fire; biological factors such as competition, symbiosis, and grazing -- are nicely tied together due to careful editorial work. This is an indispensable reference for everyone interested in the California environment."—Brent Mishler, Director of the University & Jepson Herbaria and Professor of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley "The structure and function of California grasslands have intrigued ecologists for decades. The editors of this volume have assembled a comprehensive set of reviews by a group of outstanding authors on the natural history, structure, management, and restoration of this economically and ecologically important ecosystem."—Scott L. Collins, Professor of Biology, University of New Mexico

Managing California's Water

Managing California's Water
Author: Ellen Hanak
Publisher: Public Policy Instit. of CA
Total Pages: 500
Release: 2011
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1582131414
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Invasion Dynamics

Invasion Dynamics
Author: Cang Hui
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 607
Release: 2017-01-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0191062537
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Humans have moved organisms around the world for centuries but it is only relatively recently that invasion ecology has grown into a mainstream research field. This book examines both the spread and impact dynamics of invasive species, placing the science of invasion biology on a new, more rigorous, theoretical footing, and proposing a concept of adaptive networks as the foundation for future research. Biological invasions are considered not as simple actions of invaders and reactions of invaded ecosystems, but as co-evolving complex adaptive systems with emergent features of network complexity and invasibility. Invasion Dynamics focuses on the ecology of invasive species and their impacts in recipient social-ecological systems. It discusses not only key advances and challenges within the traditional domain of invasion ecology, but introduces approaches, concepts, and insights from many other disciplines such as complexity science, systems science, and ecology more broadly. It will be of great value to invasion biologists analyzing spread and/or impact dynamics as well as other ecologists interested in spread processes or habitat management.

Contingency in California Grassland Restoration

Contingency in California Grassland Restoration
Author: Kurt John Vaughn
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN: 9781267029867
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Ecological restoration in the grasslands of California's Central Valley is a formidable prospect. First, this system represents one of the largest and most complete invasions of any ecosystem on Earth. Second, the highly competitive annual grassland species that have invaded California, while considered ruderal within their native ranges, have formed a remarkably stable novel system in California. Third, interannual rainfall in the seasonally xeric Central Valley is highly variable, and both late onset of winter rains and mid-winter (growing season) droughts are common. Despite these issues, restoration in the grasslands of California's Central Valley is proceeding rapidly. In an effort to increase my understanding of the first two issues I ask whether physiological differences between native and exotic grass guilds can help explain the invasion and current community composition of this system? I found that California perennials are more drought tolerant than Mediterranean annuals but less drought tolerant than Mediterranean perennials, despite the fact that California's Central Valley has a more intense summer drought than the Mediterranean Basin. These patterns may help explain why Mediterranean annuals, but not Mediterranean perennials, have been more successful invaders of interior California grasslands. Driven by my observations of the high interannual variability in the Central Valley, and the resultant variability in success of grassland restoration plantings in this system, I then ask how important is interannual variability in ecological experimentation? I found that the results of many ecological field experiments are likely to be contingent on the year in which they are implemented and argue for more deliberate investigation of temporal contingency in ecological experimentation, especially in the field of restoration ecology, which may be particularly sensitive to treatment by initiation-year interactions. Finally, I revisit the issue of why is this novel annual grassland system so stable. Does earlier germination in exotic annual species may help explain their unprecedented invasion and continued dominance of California grasslands? Does an early germination advantage relative to exotic annual grasses increase the establishment of native grasses? I show that a two week germination advantage significantly increased the establishment success of native perennial grasses, with population-level priority effects showing greater persistence over time than individual-level priority effects.