PARENT SESSION
Poster Session # 15: Plant Ecology.
Wednesday, August 6 Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. SITCC Exhibit Hall B.
Drought-induced mortality following dampened soil moisture pulses: Results from a semiarid woodland.
Meyer, Clifton1, Breshears, David1, Barnes, Fairley1, Myers, Orrin2, 1 EES-2, Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos, NM, USA2 Center for Population Health, Albuquerque, NM, USA
ABSTRACT- Drought can produce landscape-scale mortality of both woody and herbaceous plants, as has been documented in response to the 1950s drought in southwestern USA. Recent years have produced the most intensive drought in parts of the southwestern USA since the 1950s drought, with extensive observed tree mortality. Here we quantify mortality at a semiarid pinyon-juniper (Pinus edulis and Juniperus monosperma) site, Mesita del Buey, located in northern New Mexico. We evaluated drought impacts using a stand map obtained in the early 1990s and updated in 2003, and continuous soil moisture measurements prior to and during the drought. We document substantial mortality of pinyon but not juniper in response to the drought. We also document the magnitude to which soil moisture pulses were attenuated during the drought. Our results have implications for improving our understanding of drought-induced tree mortality, which is likely to become more important at landscape scales as climate change progresses.
Key words: semiarid, woodland, drought, Pinus edulis