Understanding and mitigating the impacts of altered temperature and precipitation regimes on the function and biodiversity of rangeland communities

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Understanding and mitigating the impacts of
altered temperature and precipitation regimes on
the function and biodiversity of rangeland
communities

• April 15th, 2008
• Stakeholders Meeting

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Objectives of Today

• Introduce researchers, supporting organizations,
  stakeholders, and other interested parties
• Provide an overview of project objectives,
  progress to date, and future goals.
• Exchange ideas between stakeholders and research
  team

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Project Objectives

• Understand how linkages between aspects of
  climate change and native rangeland ecology.
• Use this information to develop management
  suggestions to mitigate the negative aspects of
  climate change in these systems.
• Disseminate this information amongst
  stakeholders, the research community, and other
  interested parties

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Research Team
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Understanding Interactions
Precipitation
Warming
Forage Production?
Rising CO2
Grazing
Carbon Sequestration?
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Experimental Design
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Field Sites
Kinsella, AB
PFRA GAP Community Pasture, SK
Riding Mountain NP, MB
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Warming Treatment
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Precipitation
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Defoliation
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Environmental Monitoring
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Vegetation Sampling (Non-Destructive)
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Vegetation Sampling (Aboveground)

• Biomass Calibration

Harvest
Defoliation
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Vegetation Sampling (Belowground)
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Soil Chemistry Sampling
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Microbial Respiration
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Invertebrate Sampling
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Additions - 2008

• 75 precipitation addition treatment
• Minirhizotron imaging

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Here come the grad students!
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Shannon White
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Introduction

• Little research has explored the effects of
  climate change and grazing on vegetation in
  temperature grasslands
• Critical for land managers
• Following a disturbance, seed bank and seed rain
  influences may become important factors in the
  formation of plant communities

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Research Questions

1. How will climate change (temperature and
   precipitation) interact with defoliation to alter
   primary production and associated forage quality
   in northern temperate grasslands?
2. How will these changes cause shifts in plant
   community composition and range health?
3.  How will these changes alter the community
   reproductive output?
4. What role will current year seed rain, versus
   seed bank, play in population dynamics?
5. How will these changes alter subsequent
   germination and recruitment?

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Methods

1. Primary production and forage quality
2. Community composition and range health

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Methods

• 3) Reproductive output
• 4) Seed rain, versus seed bank
• 5) Germination and recruitment

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Questions?
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Samson Nyanumba
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Litter decomposition and, Carbon and Nitrogen
flux
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Decomposition of litter (including root litter)
contribute approximately 70 to the total annual
carbon flux
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Research questions 1. Do climate effects and
defoliation interact to affect litter
decomposition, and belowground carbon
storage? 2. How do rates of soil flux (e.g. N
mineralization) change in response to defoliation
and climate effects?
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Behnaz Attaeian
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Biological Fingerprints of Climate Change and
Grazing Management on Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling
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1- How warming, precipitation and defoliation
would affect composition and function of soil
microbial community in rough fescue grassland?
2- How warming, precipitation and defoliation
regulate in situ soil carbon and nitrogen
dynamics in rough fescue grassland?
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1- Soil properties 2- Rangeland productivity 3-
Rangeland health 4- Environmental policies
carbon trading
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"We accept the views of most scientists that
enough is known about the science and
environmental impacts of climate change for us to
take actions to address its consequences."Busines
s Environmental Leadership Council, Pew Center on
Global Climate Change
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Jeffrey Newton
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Sint Maarten?
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Education

• Wageningen University (Netherlands)
• Dutch Ecological Institute (NIOO)

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Research question

• What is the effect of climate change on
  (rangeland) soil arthropod communities?

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• Soil Critters
• Species richness to date
• 40 RRTUs out of lt1600 individuals
• Abundance
• e.g. Fescue grassland (Stavely, AB)
• Mites 426,000/ m2 (0-8cm depth)
• Springtails 6,000/ m2 (0-8cm depth)

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• Organic C (detritus) decomposition
• Temporary nutrient storage
• Fungal propagule dispersers

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Field Sites AB (Kinsella)

• 240 mm precipitation during field season
  (May-Oct)
• 32 vascular plant spp.
• Agropyron smithii, Stipa curtiseta dominant
  grasses (Carex spp. also abundant)
• Artemisia frigida, Oxytropis campestris most
  common forbs
• Koeleria macrantha, Festuca hallii, Bouteloua
  gracilis also common

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Field Sites SK (GAP Pasture)

• 260 mm precipitation during field season
  (May-Oct)
• 32 vascular plant spp.
• Agropyron smithii, Stipa curtiseta dominant
  grasses (Carex spp. also abundant)
• Artemisia frigida, Sphaeralcea coccinea most
  common forbs
• Bouteloua gracilis, Koeleria macrantha also common

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Field Sites MB (Riding Mountain)

• 309 mm precipitation during field season
  (May-Oct)
• 44 vascular plant spp.
• Poa secunda dominant grass
• Galium boreale, Monarda fistulosa most common
  forbs
• Achillea millefolium, Artemisia ludoviciana,
  Aster laevis, Rosa arkansana, Solidago rigida,
  Symphoricarpos occidentalis, Thalictrum
  venulosum, Vicia americana also common

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Air temperature
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Soil temperature
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Soil moisture
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Species richness
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Shannon-Weiner diversity
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Range health
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Total shoot biomass
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Graminoid biomass
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Moss and lichen biomass
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Total soil N
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Soil organisms
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Communication efforts to date

• Webpage is launched
• http//climate.biology.ualberta.ca
• Reports written for SRD, and are publicly
  available
• Talks at SRM, Agronomy update, upcoming soil
  science.

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climate.biology.ualberta.ca

• Goals for website
• Public outreach
• Communication portal
• Internal uses

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climate.biology.ualberta.ca

• Public outreach
• Hello world!
• General goals/research questions
• Introduce researchers
• Results!

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climate.biology.ualberta.ca

• Communication portal
• Questions about project
• Contact information, websites of individual
  researchers
• Internal use
• Data/file storage and transfer

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climate.biology.ualberta.ca

• Increasing visibility
• Biological Sciences dept. webpage link
• Google/Yahoo
• General searches
• Directories
• Links from other pages
• Supporting organizations
• Feedback to Google ranking

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climate.biology.ualberta.ca

• Measuring effectiveness
• Active feedback
• Email
• Passive feedback
• StatCounter.com

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NSERC Reporting Requirments

• Progress Report
• Prepared by PIs
• Due to NSERC, and stakeholders, June 30th
• Comments on report
• Prepared by participating organizations
• Due directly to NSERC July 15th

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Comments by Supporting Organizations

• i)     the amount and type of interaction their
  organization has had with the academic  members
  and trainees working on the  project 
• ii)     the progress achieved toward the
  project's objectives
• iii)    the level of support committed (cash
  and/or in-kind, if applicable) as indicated in
  the original proposal
• iv)    the significance and usefulness of the
  results (advancement of knowledge, technology
  transfer) to their organization
• v)     their satisfaction with the overall
  direction of the research
• vi)    their efforts towards exploiting the
  research results. 

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The future

• Gearing up for year 2!
• Ongoing studies
• Funding options
• Communication
• Field day
• Email updates
• Meetings