Radial growth responses in Dryas integrifolia to ambient and experimental warming in the high Arctic
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Geography, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Grishaber, Emily
issued: 2023-05-29T18:31:47Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: The rate of environmental change in the Arctic is greater than in any other global biome. Dendrochronological methods have been used in arctic ecosystems to investigate growth changes experienced by woody plants as a result of climate change. Recent and projected future climate warming in the Arctic is expected to increase plant growth potential as arctic ecosystems are heat-limited environments. Recent studies suggest that warmer local temperatures are linked to increases in shrub abundance and growth across the tundra, and that these responses are highly specific to local site conditions and species investigated. Here, we investigated ring-widths from stem/root collars of Dryas integrifolia, a common dwarf evergreen species, collected from three subsites along a moisture gradient at a High Arctic field site, Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island, NU, to determine growth relationships with local environmental variables. We used a passive warming treatment to investigate effects of a 1-3⁰ C increase in growing season temperature over 20 years on the growth of Dryas integrifolia. We determined that temperature was a significant driver of radial growth, demonstrating larger ring width sizes of shrubs grown in the experimental warming treatment compared to plants grown in the control treatment. However, temperature did not appear to be directly correlated to ring width size. Soil moisture was significantly correlated to ring width of plants grown in warmed plots from two of the three investigated subsites at Alexandra Fiord. No other measured environmental variable showed a significant relationship with ring width size. The results from this study suggest that D. integrifolia growth responds to temperature and soil moisture levels; however, the direction and degree of response is highly dependent on local site conditions. These results are consistent with others found from Arctic plant studies, which generally conclude that the effect of environmental change on plant speci…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/84712
note: RADIAL GROWTH RESPONSES IN DRYAS INTEGRIFOLIA TO AMBIENT AND EXPERIMENTAL WARMING IN THE HIGH ARCTIC by Emily Grishaber BSc Environmental Biology, Queen’s University, 2019 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Geography) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) May 2023 © Emily Grishaber, 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Radial Growth Responses in Dryas integrifolia to Ambient and Experimental Warming in the High Arctic submitted by Emily Grishaber in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geography Examining Committee: Greg Henry, Professor Emeritus, Geography, UBC Supervisor Shelly Rayback, Department Chair, Geography and Geosciences, the University of Vermont Supervisory Committee Member Lori Daniels, Professor, Forest and Conservation Sciences, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii ABSTRACT The rate of environmental change in the Arctic is greater than in any other global biome. Dendrochronological methods have been used in arctic ecosystems to investigate growth changes experienced by woody plants as a result of climate change. Recent and projected future climate warming in the Arctic is expected to increase plant growth potential as arctic ecosystems are heat-limited environments. Recent studies suggest that warmer local temperatures are linked to increases in shrub abundance and growth across the tundra, and that these responses are highly specific to local site conditions and species investigated. Here, we investigated ring-widths from stem/root collars of Dryas integrifolia, a common dwarf evergreen species, collected from three subsites along a moisture gradient at a High Arctic field site, Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island, NU, to determine growth relationships with loca…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0432735
language: eng
degree discipline: Geography
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Henry, Gregory Hugh Ross, 1956-
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/84712