Publications by authors named "Mathew R Vankoughnett"
Plant biomass is a fundamental ecosystem attribute that is sensitive to rapid climatic changes occurring in the Arctic. Nevertheless, measuring plant biomass in the Arctic is logistically challenging and resource intensive. Lack of accessible field data hinders efforts to understand the amount, composition, distribution, and changes in plant biomass in these northern ecosystems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtreme drought impacts have been underestimated in grasslands and shrublands globally.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
January 2024
Article Synopsis
- Climate change is making droughts (periods without rain) happen more often and for longer periods of time, which is bad for ecosystems.
- Scientists did a big experiment in many places around the world to see how one year of drought affects grasslands and shrublands.
- They found that extreme drought can reduce plant growth much more than expected, especially in dry areas with fewer types of plants, showing that these places are more at risk.
Plant responses to increased atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition must be considered in the context of a rapidly changing climate. Reductions in snow cover with climate warming can increase the exposure of herbaceous plants to freezing, but it is unclear how freezing damage may interact with increased N availability, and to what extent freezing effects may extend over multiple years. We explored potential interactions between freezing damage and N availability in the context of plant productivity and relative species abundance in a temperate old field using both snow removal and mesocosm experiments, and assessed the legacy effects of the freezing damage over 3 yr.
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