Ecotypes impact GPP in Eriophorum vaginatum L. with implications for the Arctic C cycle.
Abstract
The response of vegetation to climate change has implications for the carbon (C) cycle and global climate. This is especially true in the Arctic where it is uncertain if rapid climate change will stimulate gross primary productivity (GPP) enough to offset increased soil respiration. It is largely assumed that a species respond uniformly to climate change across its range. However, ecotypes—locally adapted populations within a species—exist for a number of Arctic plant species. Ecotypes display differences in physiological and morphological traits, which may affect their GPP and its response to climate change. To determine if ecotypes are important for understanding the response of ecosystem productivity to climate we measured and modeled growing season GPP in reciprocally transplanted and experimentally warmed ecotypes of Eriophorum vaginatum L., an abundant Arctic sedge. GPP of transplanted ecotypes was decoupled from climate and displayed home site advantage, which was associated with differences in leaf area index not photosynthetic rates. However, home site advantage may not persist in the face of a changing climate. This demonstrates that ecotypes can impact vegetation morphology and function with implications for C cycling. Moreover GPP of ecotypes from warmer southern sites responded more to transplantation, which suggests that ecotypic control of GPP may limit the response of ecosystem productivity to climate change. This is the first investigation to show that ecotypes play a substantial role in determining GPP and its response to climate. These results have implications for understanding decadal C cycling processes where replacement of locally adapted ecotypes as a result of migration and gene flow could influence ecosystem function along with vegetation feedbacks to climate change.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.B12C..02C
- Keywords:
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- 0414 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0439 Ecosystems;
- structure and dynamics;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0475 Permafrost;
- cryosphere;
- and high-latitude processes;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 1640 Remote sensing;
- GLOBAL CHANGE