Undergraduate Thesis Or Project
 

The impact of microclimate variation on budburst phenology within a mature Douglas-fir tree (Pseudostuga menziesii)

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/undergraduate_thesis_or_projects/nv935495z

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  • Budburst, the initiation of annual growth in plants, is sensitive to climate variation and is therefore used to monitor physiological responses to climate change. Budburst timing can vary between regions of an individual tree, but this phenomenon it is unaccounted for in current monitoring efforts and may contribute to the difficulty of deriving a coherent signature of budburst within a population or across a landscape. It’s not known what stimulates this variation in timing, termed here budburst diversity, but we hypothesize that diverse mcroclimates within the individual tree may play a role. In this study, microclimate variation was documented within eight regions of a mature Douglas-­‐fir tree before, during and after budburst by measuring foliar temperature with a thermal infrared camera. The timing of budburst was monitored within the tree crown using time-­‐ lapse photography in the visible spectrum. Shortwave radiation, wind speed, air temperature and relative humidity were measured in the crown to evaluate which microclimate variables influenced foliar mperature. One full week lapsed between the first and last region to break bud. Microclimate differences between the eight regions were subtle but evident in conditions that induced convective heat transfer. Spatial distribution within the tree crown may have contributed to microclimate variation and thus affected budburst timing. Additionally, we observed diurnal patterns of foliar temperature that differed from air temperature and where largely driven by vapor pressure deficit. This study demonstrates that variation of budburst timing can be significant within an individual tree, prompting questions of how budburst diversity may contribute to an individual’s budburst phenotype.
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  • The National Science Foundation’s Plan Genome Research Program supported this study financially. Facilities provided by the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest research program, which is funded by the National Science Foundation's Long-­‐Term Ecological Research Program (LTER6grantDEB0823380), the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, and Oregon State University. I was awarded a scholarship by the E.R. Jackman Internship Support Program to purchase my own tree climbing equipment.
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