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Interacting effects of water input, nitrogen deposition, and fire on Coastal Sage ScrubMike Goulden [email protected]
(1) How vulnerable (resilient, resistant, etc) are Southern California’s ecosystems to stress (fire, climate change, N deposition, etc)?
(2) What stress or combination of stresses poses greatest risk (where’s the Achilles heel)?
Transect Surveys
Manipulations
Eddy Flux
Santa Ana Mtns
San Jacinto Mtns
PalmSprings
Pacific
Experimental approach
Loma Ridge
• Loma Ridge section of historic Irvine Ranch (~75 km southeast of here)
• Currently managed by Irvine Ranch Conservancy
• Mosaic of exotic annual grassland
coastal sage evergreen oaks
• Experiment site
• What did this area look like 80 years ago?
• VTM (Vegetation Type Map) survey in ~1930
• Hand drawn – working off ~1895 topographic maps – lots of uncertainty
• Mosaic of exotic annual grassland
coastal sage evergreen oaks
• Similar to what we see today
• Experiment site - dominated by California sagebrush, black sage and buckwheat
1938 1977
1983 2002
CSS
GL
California sagebrush, black sage still dominate; Rhus/Malosma have increased
California sagebrush, black sage and buckwheat
Why so stable?
• Differences in soil? Nope – same texture across border – same texture to 2-m depth
• Constant environment? Nope – at least 4 wildfires (1948, 67, 98, 07), an order of magnitude interannual precip variation
• Lots of ecological resiliency (at least to normal fire and precip patterns of management since 1930)
65 mph gusts*
Air T Resiliency to wildfire – an unfortunate dataset
•Eddy covariance – measures whole ecosystem exchanges, such as photosynthesis
•Two sites ~300 m apart on similar soil
•Both burned in Oct 2007 Santiago wildfire
•Fire had no (or positive) effect on grass production
•CSS production recovered rapidly –rates of exchange 3-4 years after fire appear higher than before fire
Greaterphotosynthesis
Respiration
Coastal sage
Annual grassland
JulyJanJulyJanJulyJanJulyJanJulyJanJuly
JulyJanJulyJanJulyJanJulyJanJulyJanJuly
Greaterphotosynthesis
Respiration
540 mm370 mm212 mm223 mm72 mm
Santiago Fire
•Loma Ridge
•Manipulate water (+-50%) and Nitrogen (+) input for last 5 years
CSS
GL
CSS
Simulate effects of climate change on experimental plots using roofs that close/open to remove/add water -
Roofs open ~97% of the time
Roofs closed 3% of the time (for big storms)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
10/1/2008 11/20/2008 1/9/2009 2/28/2009 4/19/2009 6/8/2009
Cumulative ambient
Cumulative dry
Cumulative wet
Water input for the various treatments
1/3 of the plots get extra water
1/3 of the plots get normal water
1/3 of the plots get reduced water
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Frac
tion
al c
over
Water input (mm yr-1)
Filaree (Erodium sp.)
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Frac
tiona
l cov
er
Water input (mm yr-1)
Ripgut Brome (Bromus diandrus)
Grassland - Very rapid shifts in species composition
Water input (mm yr-1)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Fra
ctio
na
l sp
eci
es
cove
r
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4Bromus diandrus Lolium multiflorum Avena sps. Nasella pulchra Calandrinia ciliata Erodium sps. Hirschfeldia incana Vicia villosa Lupine sps.
1929-2010 median 236 mm
•Rapid changes in relative abundance – Species reordering•Species coexist at climatological precipitation (median 236 mm /yr)•Species reordering tied to traits•Favored with drought - Forbs and shorter time to flowering •Favored in wet treatments - Grasses and N fixers
Normal Nitrogen
Added Nitrogen
Reduced precipitation
Moderate risk of change to red brome grassland
Large risk of change to red brome grassland
Normal precipitation
Stable Moderate risk of change to brome grassland
Added precipitation
Stable Stable
CSS’ Achilles heel? The combination of:•Fire (knocks shrubs back 2-3 years; no or positive effect on grasses)•Several dry years (soil below 0.5-1 m remains dry; hurts shrubs, not grasses) •Added N (accelerates grasses; only small effect on shrubs)