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The frequency of extreme drought events is projected to increase under global climate change, causing damage to plants and crop yield despite potential acclimation. We investigated whether grasses remain acclimated to drought even after a harvest and remember early summer drought exposure over a whole vegetation period. For this, we compared the response of Arrhenatherum elatius plants under a second, late, drought (they were pre-exposed to an early drought before), to plants exposed to a single, only late, extreme drought. Surprisingly, the percentage of living biomass after a late drought increased for plants that were exposed to drought earlier in the growing season compared to single-stressed plants, even after...
Natural-resource managers and other conservation practitioners are under unprecedented pressure to categorize and quantify the vulnerability of natural systems based on assessment of the exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity of species to climate change. Despite the urgent need for these assessments, neither the theoretical basis of adaptive capacity nor the practical issues underlying its quantification has been articulated in a manner that is directly applicable to natural-resource management. Both are critical for researchers, managers, and other conservation practitioners to develop reliable strategies for assessing adaptive capacity. Drawing from principles of classical and contemporary research and...
Previous field studies of squamate reptiles have shown that many life history traits show a significant amount of phenotypic plasticity, especially in response to prey availability. These results were recently supported by laboratory studies on a viviparous garter snake, which showed that clutch size and clutch mass were plastic in response to changes in energy intake, but that relative clutch mass and offspring size were relatively canalized. To determine if these results extend to oviparous reptiles, we conducted an experimental study of phenotypic plasticity in the corn snake, Elapheguttata. Female corn snakes on a high energy diet produced larger clutch sizes, larger clutch masses, and larger relative clutch...
Abstract (from http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/04/10/1222724110.abstract): Most examples of seasonal mismatches in phenology span multiple trophic levels, with timing of animal reproduction, hibernation, or migration becoming detached from peak food supply. The consequences of such mismatches are difficult to link to specific future climate change scenarios because the responses across trophic levels have complex underlying climate drivers often confounded by other stressors. In contrast, seasonal coat color polyphenism creating camouflage against snow is a direct and potentially severe type of seasonal mismatch if crypsis becomes compromised by the animal being white when snow is absent. It is unknown whether...
map background search result map search result map Do plants remember drought? Hints towards a drought-memory in grasses Do plants remember drought? Hints towards a drought-memory in grasses