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Rapid evolution of flowering time by an annual plant in response to a climate fluctuation
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Ongoing climate change has affected the ecological dynamics of many species and is expected to impose natural selection on ecologically important traits. Droughts and other anticipated changes in precipitation may be particularly potent selective fac- tors, especially in arid regions. Here we demonstrate the evolutionary response of an annual plant, Brassica rapa, to a recent climate fluctuation resulting in a multiyear drought. Ancestral (predrought) genotypes were recovered from stored seed and raised under a set of common environments with descendant (postdrought) genotypes and with ancestordescendant hybrids. As predicted, the abbreviated growing seasons caused by drought led to the evolution of earlier onset of flowering. Descendants bloomed earlier than ancestors, advancing first flowering by 1.9 days in one study population and 8.6 days in another. The inter- mediate flowering time of ancestordescendant hybrids supports an additive genetic basis for divergence. Experiments confirmed that summer drought selected for early flowering, that flowering time was heritable, and that selection intensities in the field were more than sufficient to account for the observed evolutionary change. Natural selection for drought escape thus appears to have caused adaptive evolution in just a few generations. A systematic effort to collect and store propagules from suitable species would provide biologists with materials to detect and elucidate the genetic basis of further evolutionary shifts driven by climate change.
contemporary evolution global climate change life history theory local adaptation plant phenology
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Rapid growth in CO2 emissions after the 2008–2009 global financial crisis.pdf
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1st paragraph: Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel combustion and cement production grew 5.9% in 2010, surpassed 9 Pg of carbon (Pg C) for the first time, and more than offset the 1.4% decrease in 2009. The impact of the 2008–2009 global financial crisis (GFC) on emissions has
been short-lived owing to strong emissions growth in emerging economies, a return to emissions growth in developed economies, and an increase in the fossil-fuel intensity of the world economy.
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Rapid Range Shifts of Species Associated with High Levels of Climate Warming
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The distributions of many terrestrial organisms are currently shifting in latitude or elevation in responseto changing climate. Using a meta-analysis, we estimated that the distributions of species haverecently shifted to higher elevations at a median rate of 11.0 meters per decade, and to higher latitudes
at a median rate of 16.9 kilometers per decade. These rates are approximately two and three times faster than previously reported. The distances moved by species are greatest in studies showing thehighest levels of warming, with average latitudinal shifts being generally sufficient to track temperature
changes. However, individual species vary greatly in their rates of change, suggesting that the range shift of each species depends on multiple internal species traits and external drivers of change. Rapid average shifts derive from a wide diversity of responses by individual species.
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Rapid shifts in plant distribution with recent climate change
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A change in climate would be expected to shift plant distribution as species expand in newly favorable areas and decline in increas- ingly hostile locations. We compared surveys of plant cover that were made in 1977 and 2006–2007 along a 2,314-m elevation gradient in Southern California’s Santa Rosa Mountains. Southern California’s climate warmed at the surface, the precipitation vari- ability increased, and the amount of snow decreased during the 30-year period preceding the second survey. We found that the average elevation of the dominant plant species rose by 65 m between the surveys. This shift cannot be attributed to changes in air pollution or fire frequency and appears to be a consequence of changes in regional climate.
plant migration range shift
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Rashleigh 2008.pdf
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PEK-RIC
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Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size
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Forests are major components of the global carbon cycle, providing
substantial feedback to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations1
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Our ability to understand and predict changes in the forest carbon
cycle—particularly net primary productivity and carbon storage—
increasingly relies on models that represent biological processes
across several scales of biological organization, from tree leaves to
forest stands2,3. Yet, despite advances in our understanding of productivity
at the scales of leaves and stands, no consensus exists about
the nature of productivity at the scale of the individual tree4–7, in
part because we lack a broad empirical assessment of whether rates
of absolute treemass growth (and thus carbon accumulation) decrease,
remain constant, or increase as trees increase in size and age. Here we
present a global analysis of 403 tropical and temperate tree species,
showing that for most species mass growth rate increases continuously
with tree size. Thus, large, old trees do not act simply as senescent
carbon reservoirs but actively fix large amounts of carbon
compared to smaller trees; at the extreme, a single big tree can add
the same amount of carbon to the forest within a year as is contained
in an entire mid-sized tree. The apparent paradoxes of individual
tree growth increasing with tree size despite declining leaf-level8–10
and stand-level10 productivity can be explained, respectively, by
increases in a tree’s total leaf area that outpace declines in productivity
per unit of leaf area and, among other factors, age-related
reductions in population density. Our results resolve conflicting
assumptions about the nature of tree growth,inform efforts to undertand
and model forest carbon dynamics, and have additional implications
for theories of resource allocation11 and plant senescence1
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Raulerson Life Cycle.pdf
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Ray 1977.pdf
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Re-evaluation of forest biomass carbon stocks and lessons from the world’s most carbon-dense forests
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From analysis of published global site biomass data (n = 136) from primary forests, we discovered (i) the world’s highest known total biomass carbon density (living plus dead) of 1,867 tonnes carbon per ha (average value from 13 sites) occurs in Australian temperate moist Eucalyptus regnans forests, and (ii) average values of the global site biomass data were higher for sampled temperate moist forests (n 44) than for sampled tropical (n 36) and boreal (n 52) forests (n is number of sites per forest biome). Spatially averaged Intergovern- mental Panel on Climate Change biome default values are lower than our average site values for temperate moist forests, because the temperate biome contains a diversity of forest ecosystem types that support a range of mature carbon stocks or have a long land-use history with reduced carbon stocks. We describe a framework for identifying forests important for carbon storage based on the factors that account for high biomass carbon densities, including (i) relatively cool temperatures and moderately high precipitation producing rates of fast growth but slow decomposition, and (ii) older forests that are often multiaged and multilayered and have experienced minimal human disturbance. Our results are relevant to negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change re- garding forest conservation, management, and restoration. Conserv- ing forests with large stocks of biomass from deforestation and degradation avoids significant carbon emissions to the atmosphere, irrespective of the source country, and should be among allowable mitigation activities. Similarly, management that allows restoration of a forest’s carbon sequestration potential also should be recognized.
Eucalyptus regnans climate mitigation primary forest deforestation and degradation temperate moist forest biome
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