HR: 0800h
AN: GC41A-0115    [Abstracts]
TI: Climate Influence on Shifts in the Deep Canyon Ecocline, 1977 - 2007
AU: * Kelly, A
EM: anne.kelly@utoronto.ca
AF: Cal State Los Angeles, Departments of Geography and Biological Sciences, 5151 State University Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90032, United States
AU: Goulden, M
EM: mgoulden@uci.edu
AF: UC Irvine, 3319 Croul Hall, Irvine, CA 92697, United States
AB: The Deep Canyon Transect in the Santa Rosa Mountains of Southern California spans 2560 m in elevation and four major plant communities: desert scrub, Sonoran pinyon-juniper woodland, montane chaparral, and mixed conifer forest. The plant species distributions of the Deep Canyon Transect were compared from 1977 to 2007 and the causes of change were examined. We hypothesized plant species distributions to move upwards in elevation in response to climate warming and increasing climate variability. In 1977, Jan Zabriskie surveyed plant species coverage along a 400 m isocontour every 122 m in elevation along the transect. Following Zabriskie, I resurveyed these sites in 2006 -– 2007 and compared species coverage. The set of the ten most widespread species spans all elevations, plant communities, and functional types of Deep Canyon. The mean elevation increase for these ten species is 64.7 m, within a two-tailed 95% CI of 30.9 –- 98.5 m. From 1977 -– 2006, the Deep Canyon Transect experienced a significant increase in mean annual temperature of 0.5 –- 0.8° C. Variability in annual precipitation has also doubled over that time. Climate warming and increasing climate variability has been the primary driver of upward plant species shifts in Deep Canyon.
DE: 0439 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics (4815)
DE: 0476 Plant ecology (1851)
DE: 1630 Impacts of global change (1225)
DE: 1632 Land cover change
DE: 1637 Regional climate change
SC: Global Environmental Change [GC]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting