Effects of warming, dominant species removal, and accelerated snowmelt on aboveground plant traits in the Colorado Rocky Mountains

Abstract

Noticeable changes such as the alteration of ecosystem productivity, the influence of species interactions with one another and its environment, and the transformation of habitats are all linked to climate change. Although plant functions might be a useful tool in understanding plant communities and ecosystems, it’s time-consuming and expensive. Instead, we can observe aboveground plant traits, which are virtual indicators of the health conditions of plant communities. Measuring how plant traits respond to global change drivers is a useful way to predict plant and ecosystem functioning in future climates. For example, Plant height is a proxy for light capture, and leaf mass per area (LMA) is a great indicator of leaf photosynthetic capacity. We aimed to discover the effects of warming, dominant species removal and accelerated snowmelt on aboveground plant traits in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. This project took place in a montane meadow in Almont, Colorado where the warming and dominant species removal experiment exists, and in Gothic, Colorado where the accelerated snowmelt manipulation is located. At Almont, we saw that the response of plant height to the experimental treatments depended on the species and a combination of treatments. In total eight out of 15 plant species responded to the treatments in some way. There was also no significant response of leaf mass per area (LMA) to the experimental treatments, instead, LMA depended only on the plant species. There was a similar response of chlorophyll content (SPAD) at Almont, Colorado, where the response depended on the species and the treatments. Contrary to what we found in Almont, in Gothic, Colorado there was no significant response of plant chlorophyll content (SPAD) to the experimental treatments, instead, SPAD depended only on the plant species. These results indicate the complexity of plant trait responses and how dynamic they can be in different locations under numerous climate conditions. Understanding these responses is important because they can help us understand how plant communities in montane meadows might change under future climate scenarios.

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