COMMON GARDEN EXPERIMENTS AS A DYNAMIC TOOL FOR ECOLOGICAL STUDIES OF ALPINE PLANTS AND COMMUNITIES IN NORTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA

Abstract

Alpine areas make excellent research sites for investigating questions of plant ecology due to harsh climatic filtering, compressed ecological/environmental gradients, limited species pools, and the presence of potentially isolated sub-populations on habitat islands. In northeastern North America, alpine areas are rare and potentially highly vulnerable to climate change. Despite a renewed focus by researchers on these ecosystems, much remains unknown about the environmental adaptations, species interactions, and dynamics of alpine species and communities in the region and how they may respond to future climate change. Here, we review the use of common garden experiments in alpine areas of northeastern North America and outline the many ways they can effectively address some of our region's most pressing questions in alpine plant ecology and conservation. We also present common garden research priorities, including investigating the influence of environmental conditions on plant trait variation, the response of populations and communities to environmental change, and identifying high-elevation ecotypes. Last, we present practical guidelines for future common garden research in the region, including discussions of experimental design, data collection and analysis, and interpretation and sharing of results.