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Aim: A conspicuous climatic and biogeographical transition occurs at 40?45� N in western North America. This pivot point marks a north?south opposition of wet and dry conditions at interannual and decadal time-scales, as well as the northern and southern limits of many dominant western plant species. Palaeoecologists have yet to focus on past climatic and biotic shifts along this transition, in part because it requires comparisons across dissimilar records [i.e. pollen from lacustrine sediments to the north and plant macrofossils from woodrat (Neotoma) middens to the south]. To overcome these limitations, we are extending the woodrat-midden record northward into the lowlands of the central Rocky Mountains. Published...
Age structure data from eight stands of Artemisia tridentata Nutt. In southern British Columbia are compared to local climatic records by stepwise multiple regression. Climatic variables appear to account for between 40% and 50% of the age structure variance, after correction for adult mortality. Recruitment failure in this species may result from drought or heavy rain in autumn, leading to low seed crops, or from high seeding mortality which may be related to low spring temperatures, summer drought, or high autumn and low winter temperatures. Estimates of the spatial pattern of average establishment success are derived using the predictive equations from the regression analyses, and mean climatic data from regional...
Aim The influence of anthropogenic climate change on organisms is an area of great scientific concern. Increasingly there is recognition that abrupt climate transitions have occurred over the late Quaternary; studies of these shifts may yield insights into likely biotic responses to contemporary warming. Here, we review research undertaken over the past decade investigating the response of Neotoma (woodrats) body size and distribution to climate change over the late Quaternary (the last 40,000 years). By integrating information from woodrat palaeomiddens, historical museum specimens and field studies of modern populations, we identify potential evolutionary responses to climate change occurring over a variety of...
Pollen and plant macrofossils from the Keystone Ironbog are used to document changes in species composition and the dynamics of the subalpine forest in western Colorado over the past 8000 years. Modern pollen spectra (particularly pollen influx), plant macrofossils, observations on modern species composition, and quantified densities and mean basal areas of forest trees are used to interpret the paleoecology of the forest. From 8000 to 2600 years ago the fen was surrounded by a subalpine forest. However, unlike the modern subalpine forest where Abies lasiocarpa (Hooker) Nuttall is slightly more abundant than Picea engelmannii (Parry) Engelmann, these Holocene forests had a greater dominance of P. engelmannii, perhaps...
A new compilation of pollen and packrat midden data from western North America provides a refined reconstruction of the composition and distribution of biomes in western North America for today and for 6000 and 18,000 radiocarbon years before present (14C yr bp). Modern biomes in western North America are adequately portrayed by pollen assemblages from lakes and bogs. Forest biomes in western North America share many taxa in their pollen spectra and it can be difficult to discriminate among these biomes. Plant macrofossils from packrat middens provide reliable identification of modern biomes from arid and semiarid regions, and this may also be true in similar environments in other parts of the world. However, a...
Aim The geographical extent and climatic tolerances of one- and two-needled pinyon pines (Pinus subsect. Cembroides) are the focus of questions in taxonomy, palaeoclimatology and modelling of future distributions. The identification of these pines, traditionally classified by one- versus two-needled fascicles, is complicated by populations with both one- and two-needled fascicles on the same tree, and the description of two more recently described one-needled varieties: the fallax-type and californiarum-type. Because previous studies have suggested correlations between needle anatomy and climate, including anatomical plasticity reflecting annual precipitation, we approached this study at the level of the anatomy...
Aim A small fauna of amphibious snails (genus Assiminea Fleming, 1828) living in association with highly mineralized springs in the Death Valley?lower Colorado River region (DVLCR) is thought to be a relict of the Bouse Embayment, a putative late Miocene?early Pliocene transgression of the ancestral Gulf of California along the lower Colorado River valley. We analysed the phylogenetic relationships of this fauna using mtDNA sequence data (1171 bp) to determine whether, as would be consistent with this hypothesis, it forms a substantially divergent unit sister to marine coastal congeners. Location South-western Great Basin and lower Colorado River region, USA. Methods Two genes [mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase...
We compared the water balance among the earth's major terrestrial ecosystems. Potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration (AET) and deficit were derived for each month and year from 19-25-yr climate records at ninety-four sites around the world representing eleven biomes. For each variable, we determined mean annual values. Our focus, however, was to examine temporal variation in AET, which previously has been correlated with large-scale patterns of ecosystem structure and function. Standard deviation of annual AET, an absolute measure of interannual variability, was highest for grasslands and lowest for tundra and taiga. Coefficient of variation of annual AET, a relative measure of variability, was...
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Aim The recent concern that quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) has been declining in parts of western North America due to fire suppression is largely based on trends during the latter part of the 20th century. The aim of the current study was to compare the extent of aspen in the modern landscape with its extent in the late 19th century prior to fire suppression, and to assess the effects of elevation, late-19th century fires, and pre-fire forest composition on the successional status of aspen. Location North-west Colorado, USA. Methods We used a georeferenced 1898 map and modern maps to examine trends in aspen dominance since the late 19th century in a 348,586 ha area of White River and Routt National...
Aim Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex Lawson & C. Lawson) is an economically and ecologically important conifer that has a wide geographic range in the western USA, but is mostly absent from the geographic centre of its distribution ? the Great Basin and adjoining mountain ranges. Much of its modern range was achieved by migration of geographically distinct Sierra Nevada (P. ponderosa var. ponderosa) and Rocky Mountain (P. ponderosa var. scopulorum) varieties in the last 10,000 years. Previous research has confirmed genetic differences between the two varieties, and measurable genetic exchange occurs where their ranges now overlap in western Montana. A variety of approaches in bioclimatic modelling is required...
Aim: North America harbours the most diverse freshwater mussel fauna on Earth. This fauna has high endemism at the continental scale and within individual river systems. Previous faunal classifications for North America were based on intuitive, subjective assessments of species distributions, primarily the occurrence of endemic species, and do not portray continent-wide patterns of faunal similarity. The aim of this study is to provide an analytical portrayal of patterns of mussel diversity in a hierarchical framework that informs the biogeographical history of the fauna. Published in Journal of Biogeography, volume 37, issue 1, on pages 12 - 26, in 2010.
    map background search result map search result map Influences of infrequent fire, elevation and pre-fire vegetation on the persistence of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) in the Flat Tops area, Colorado, USA Influences of infrequent fire, elevation and pre-fire vegetation on the persistence of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) in the Flat Tops area, Colorado, USA