Abstract
The impacts of climate change are expected to alter the abundance and distribution of invasive annual grasses, such as Bromus tectorum L. (cheatgrass) and Ventenata dubia (Leers) Coss. (ventenata). High temperature extremes will be more frequent and for longer periods, and increased atmospheric CO2 is expected to double even with the most conservative estimates. Climate change draws concern for the potential success of winter annual grasses in arid and semi-arid plant communities. Information on B. tectorum’s growth response to climate change in laboratory and field experiments are available for monocultures; however, more knowledge is needed on the response when growing with other invasive grasses, such as V. dubia. We examined differences in seedling growth for V. dubia and B. tectorum growing alone and with each other under current (4 °C/23 °C at 400 ppm CO2) and elevated (10.6 °C/29.6 °C at 800 ppm CO2) climate conditions. There was one trial per climate scenario with 10 replications per competition type (inter-, intra-specific competition for each species). Bromus tectorum was larger than V. dubia across climate and competition treatments, but contrary to previous studies, both species were smaller in the elevated climate treatment. Ventenata dubia allocated more growth to its roots than B. tectorum across both climate treatments, indicating V. dubia may have a competitive advantage for soil resources now and in the future.
Highlights
Impacts of climate change are expected to alter the abundance and distribution of invasive annual grasses, such as Bromus tectorum L. and Ventenata dubia (Leers) Coss. [1,2].Bromus tectorum was introduced to North America in the 1800s and is the most widespread invasive plant in the western United States (US) [3]
Previous research has shown V. dubia to have overall lower biomass and root length than B. tectorum and another invasive winter annual grass, T. caput-medusae [6], and V. dubia was smaller than B. tectorum in this study, there was evidence for more root allocation by this species when growing in elevated temperature and CO2 conditions, which could enable it to become more competitive with B. tectorum in the future
Characterizing species-specific responses of invasive annual grasses to climate change is important for invasions across the western US
Summary
Impacts of climate change are expected to alter the abundance and distribution of invasive annual grasses, such as Bromus tectorum L. (cheatgrass) and Ventenata dubia (Leers) Coss. (ventenata) [1,2].Bromus tectorum was introduced to North America in the 1800s and is the most widespread invasive plant in the western United States (US) [3]. Impacts of climate change are expected to alter the abundance and distribution of invasive annual grasses, such as Bromus tectorum L. On the other hand, was documented in. North America almost 100 years later, in the 1950s, and has rapidly expanded its distribution over the last several years [4,5]. Both species are winter annuals, and B. tectorum has generally demonstrated greater growth than V. dubia when compared in controlled growing conditions [6,7,8], and B. tectorum abundance is inversely related to V. dubia abundance in some areas where their distributions overlap [4]. In the western US, high temperature extremes are projected to be more frequent and to last for longer periods, while low temperature extremes are projected to be less frequent; increased atmospheric CO2 is expected to double across all ecosystems, even in the most conservative climate
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