Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory

23 Mar, 06 AM - 29 Mar, 06 AM

My research seeks to identify how changing environmental conditions might affect native and introduced plant populations in the eastern Sierra Nevada. My focus is on cheatgrass, a non-native grass introduced from Eurasia that has spread throughout much of the intermountain west and threatens native species conservation. Changing water and nutrient inputs are likely to occur throughout the region due to increased anthropogenic pressures (i.e. climate change and air pollution- specifically, nitrogen deposition). It is likely that the effects of these impacts on plant populations will be interactive, rather than additive, and that some combinations may favor cheatgrass expansion. Furthermore, these changing inputs are likely to have different effects depending on past land use history: whether the site has been grazed, burned, or undisturbed. Through a series of manipulation experiments, I will test the response of native and introduced plant growth, physiology, and diversity to different resource conditions across a patchwork of land use histories. I aim to identify which combinations of land use history and environmental conditions are most likely to favor cheatgrass expansion, with the overarching goal of designing management strategies and restoration tools for cheatgrass control.

Visit #14839 @Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory

Approved

Under Project # 9759 | Research

Effects of changing climatic and edaphic conditions on ecosystem invasibility in the eastern

graduate_student - University of California, Santa Cruz

Reservation Members(s)

Amy Concilio Mar 23 - 29, 2008 (7 days)

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