Quaking aspen, Populus tremuloides, has experienced severe declines in recent years in part due to the effects of changing climate and extreme drought. As the dominant deciduous tree in Western North American forests, aspen plays a critical role in forest biodiversity and ecosystem function. Therefore, the persistence of this species...
It is uncertain how predicted changes in climate will impact vegetation responses and plant species’ distributions because the physiological mechanisms underlying thresholds for damage are not well understood, and responses to stress vary by functional type and developmental stage. Thus, it is crucial to investigate physiological responses to heat and...
Vegetation patterns and species distributions are strongly linked to soil moisture regimes, and populations within a species from contrasting climatic regimes could exhibit differences in the degree to which certain functional traits related to establishment are expressed. Tree seedling survival is crucial for forest regeneration, and thus may be a...
Contemporary forest management involves a more extensive and diverse suite of management objectives than was the case throughout much of the Twentieth Century. Heightened public and political awareness of local and global biodiversity decline, and interest in arresting these trends, has increased the emphasis on broad-based biodiversity conservation as an...