Response Of Wet Meadow Tundra To Interannual And Manipulated Temperature Variation:
Implications For Climate Change Research
by Robert D. Hollister
Abstract
This research is a contribution to the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX). ITEX was established to monitor and make realistic predictions of plant response to climate change. The hypothesis is that short-term warming of ambient temperature will lead to accelerate phenology and increased vigor. Measured characters were date of flowering, number of flowers, stature, number of leaves, and leaf length. Twenty-four small open-top chambers were used to passively warm canopy temperatures in wet meadow tundra at Barrow, Alaska during the summers of 1995 and 1996. Fortuitously the seasonal average temperature difference due to chamber warming and interannual variability were both approximately 1.5C; this allowed comparisons of species response to warming caused by the two mechanisms. The statistical significance of species responses to chamber warming and interannual warming were similar 70% of the time. All species showed significant trends of increased vigor or earlier phonologic development under warmer canopy temperatures for at least one character. The most consistent plant response to warmer temperature was increased plant stature.
Source
Hollister, R. D. 1998. "Response of Wet Meadow Tundra to Interannual and Manipulated Temperature Variation: Implications for Climate Change Research". Master of Science Theses. Michigan State University. East Lansing, MI. 128 pp.