GEUM ROSSII

This research is part of my honors thesis investigating the impact of early snowmelt and warming on alpine flower populations. My mentors and I are curious how alpine plant populations will respond to the impacts of climate change across complex alpine landscapes. Are there places on the landscape which can buffer plant populations from the impacts of higher temperatures and earlier snowmelt? Together with Dr. William Bowman, doctoral student Chiara Forrester, and the Long Term Ecological Research program we are using experimental plots just outside Boulder, CO to answer this question.  We monitor numerous individual plants of several species, tracking the timing of their lifecycle phases along with other biotic and abiotic metrics in different places on the landscape.

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My work focuses specifically on the small yellow Alpine Avens flower (Geum rossii) and how simulated climate change impacts may impact seed germination. For the past two years I have been tracking over 4,000 Alpine Avens seeds planted in experimental plots on Niwot ridge. Treatments of early snowmelt, warming, early snowmelt and warming, and control are applied to the plots where the seeds are planted. I monitor the proportion of seeds which are able to successfully sprout, looking for differences in the germination rate between treatments. I am also working concurrently on a greenhouse experiment investigating whether there are differences in the viability of seeds produced by parent plants experiencing the various warming and snowmelt treatments. This work will provide a better understanding of how Alpine Avens populations respond to changing climate conditions. It is our hope that this knowledge will provide an improved ability to predict how plant populations will be affected by climate change across complex landscapes.

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After two years of field research I found that early snowmelt negatively affected the percent of Geum rossii which were able to germinate in the field, but only in the landscape position where early snowmelt caused the greatest changes in snowmelt timing. I also found that germination rates significantly decreased when seeds were planted on steep slopes. These findings show that even within ecosystems, some places on the landscape may exacerbate the negative effects of climate change, while others may serve as a refuge for plants threatened by changing conditions. My research shows that it is especially important for conservation efforts in alpine systems to be aware of snowmelt timing changes, and not just surface temperatures, as an important influence on population dynamics and particularly on germination. Finally, my work highlights why  it is critical to continue to investigating the impact of small scale factors (such as planting area slope) and intermediate scale factors (such as landscape position) on plant responses to climate change is critical.

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