The impacts of early snowmelt and summer precipitation on the physiology and leaf morphology of <i>Ipomopsis aggregata</i>
Abstract
Climate change is occurring, and the effects will be visible all over the planet. In a subalpine ecosystem, earlier snowmelt and changes in summer precipitation are predicted to occur due to an increase in air temperature. During the summertime, this variation may lead to changes in traits, a process known as phenotypic plasticity. In plants, these plastic changes could occur in morphological traits or physiological traits. This study aimed to find the impact of an earlier snowmelt as well as variation in summer precipitation on traits in Ipomopsis aggregata, a subalpine herb. In this study, we manipulated the snowmelt date and summer precipitation and measured three traits, photosynthetic water-use efficiency, specific leaf area, and trichome density, to determine if the environmental constraints are impacting the plant’s physiology and leaf morphology. Plants that had experienced less precipitation had a higher photosynthetic water-use efficiency, but still had lower photosynthetic rates. Water-use efficiency was similar for plants receiving a 50% reduction in summer rainfall and plants forced to bloom one week early but receiving normal rainfall. There was no detectable impact of date of snowmelt or amount of precipitation on the specific leaf area of the plants just 9 days after the onset of the precipitation treatments.
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References (22)
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