Forecasting Distributional Responses of Limber Pine to Climate Change at Management-Relevant Scales in Rocky Mountain National Park

Resource managers at parks and other protected areas are increasingly expected to factor climate change explicitly into their decision making frameworks. However, most protected areas are small relative to the geographic ranges of species being managed, so forecasts need to consider local adaptation and community dynamics that are correlated with climate and affect distributions inside protected area boundaries. Additionally, niche theory suggests that species\u27 physiological capacities to respond to climate change may be underestimated when forecasts fail to consider the full breadth of climates occupied by the species rangewide. Here, using correlative species distribution models that contrast estimates of climatic sensitivity inferred from the two spatial extents, we quantify the response of limber pine (Pinus flexilis) to climate change in Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado, USA). Models are trained locally within the park where limber pine is the community dominant tree species, a distinct structural-compositional vegetation class of interest to managers, and also rangewide, as suggested by niche theory. Model forecasts through 2100 under two representative concentration pathways (RCP 4.5 and 8.5 W/m2) show that the distribution of limber pine in the park is expected to move upslope in elevation, but changes in total and core patch area remain highly uncertain. Most of this uncertainty is biological, as magnitudes of projected change are considerably more variable between the two spatial extents used in model training than they are between RCPs, and novel future climates only affect local model predictions associated with RCP 8.5 after 2091. Combined, these results illustrate the importance of accounting for unknowns in species\u27 climatic sensitivities when forecasting distributional scenarios that are used to inform management decisions. We discuss how our results for limber pine may be interpreted in the context of climate change vulnerability and used to help guide adaptive management

1-(2-Oxo-3,4-dihydro-2H-1,3-benzoxazin-4-yl)urea monohydrate

The organic molecule in the title hydrate, C9H9N3O3·H2O, was obtained by the condenstation of salicylic aldehyde with urea in acetonitrile. The oxazine ring adopts a slightly distorted sofa conformation, with the N atom deviating from the plane passing through the other atoms of the ring by 0.267 (2) Å. The crystal structure displays inter­molecular N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonding

Absolute values of the London penetration depth in YBa2Cu3O6+y measured by zero field ESR spectroscopy on Gd doped single crystals

Zero-field electron spin resonance (ESR) of dilute Gd ions substituted for Y in the cuprate superconductor YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{\rm 6+y}$ is used as a novel technique for measuring the absolute value of the low temperature magnetic penetration depth $\lambda(T\to 0)$. The Gd ESR spectrum of samples with $\approx 1$ substitution was obtained with a broadband microwave technique that measures power absorption bolometrically from 0.5 GHz to 21 GHz. This ESR spectrum is determined by the crystal field that lifts the level degeneracy of the spin 7/2 Gd$^{3+}$ ion and details of this spectrum provide information concerning oxygen ordering in the samples. The magnetic penetration depth is obtained by relating the number of Gd ions exposed to the microwave magnetic field to the frequency-integrated intensity of the observed ESR transitions. This technique has allowed us to determine precise values of $\lambda$ for screening currents flowing in the three crystallographic orientations ($\hat a$, $\hat b$ and $\hat c$) in samples of Gd$_{\rm x}$Y$_{\rm 1-x}$Ba$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+{\rm y}}$ of three different oxygen contents ${\rm y}=0.993$ ($T_c = 89$ K), ${\rm y}=0.77$ ($T_c=75$ K) and ${\rm y}=0.52$ ($T_c=56$ K). The in-plane values are found to depart substantially from the widely reported relation $T_c\propto 1/\lambda^2$.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures; version to appear in PR

Rapid Plant Identification Using Species- and Group-Specific Primers Targeting Chloroplast DNA

Plant identification is challenging when no morphologically assignable parts are available. There is a lack of broadly applicable methods for identifying plants in this situation, for example when roots grow in mixture and for decayed or semi-digested plant material. These difficulties have also impeded the progress made in ecological disciplines such as soil- and trophic ecology. Here, a PCR-based approach is presented which allows identifying a variety of plant taxa commonly occurring in Central European agricultural land. Based on the trnT-F cpDNA region, PCR assays were developed to identify two plant families (Poaceae and Apiaceae), the genera Trifolium and Plantago, and nine plant species: Achillea millefolium, Fagopyrum esculentum, Lolium perenne, Lupinus angustifolius, Phaseolus coccineus, Sinapis alba, Taraxacum officinale, Triticum aestivum, and Zea mays. These assays allowed identification of plants based on size-specific amplicons ranging from 116 bp to 381 bp. Their specificity and sensitivity was consistently high, enabling the detection of small amounts of plant DNA, for example, in decaying plant material and in the intestine or faeces of herbivores. To increase the efficacy of identifying plant species from large number of samples, specific primers were combined in multiplex PCRs, allowing screening for multiple species within a single reaction. The molecular assays outlined here will be applicable manifold, such as for root- and leaf litter identification, botanical trace evidence, and the analysis of herbivory

Identification of Roots of Woody Species Using Polymerase Chain Reaction

Within the last two decades, substantial progress has been made in understanding seed-bank dynamics and the contribution of the soil seed bank to a postdisturbance plant community. There has been relatively little progress, however, in understanding perennial bud-bank dynamics and the contribution of the soil bud bank to secondary succession. This lack of information is due primarily to the inability to reliably identify roots, rhizomes and lignotubers that lie dormant beneath the soil surface. This investigation addressed the issue of identification of below-ground woody structures. The first objective was to develop a method that used molecular tools to identify woody plant species from subsoil tissue samples. The second objective was to develop a key in which molecular markers served as criteria for the identification and differentiation of selected tree and shrub species common to the mountains of northeast Oregon and southeast Washington. Application of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplified rbcL appears to be a reliable method to identify and differentiate 15 plants to the genus level. Two restriction enzymes, DpnII and HhaI, provided restriction site polymorphisms in the PCR product. The fragment number and length were used to develop an identification key. However, plants not analysed in this \u27exploratory key\u27 might share the same banding patterns, resulting in a false identification of unknowns

Akaike Information Criterion, with finite sample size correction (AICc), for distribution models of limber pine trained at the local extent using six different combinations of bioclimatic variables.

<p>Akaike Information Criterion, with finite sample size correction (AICc), for distribution models of limber pine trained at the local extent using six different combinations of bioclimatic variables.</p