Effects of water availability on expression of vegetative traits in Ipomopsis across space and time

Abstract

In subalpine ecosystems, climate change has contributed to an earlier snowmelt as a result of warmer temperatures in the winter and spring. This shift may act to limit water availability for plant communities by prolonging the period between initial snowmelt and late-season monsoon rains, placing these systems at risk of more frequent and severe drought. The genus Ipomopsis—a perennial subalpine plant—has been the subject of a long-term study at RMBL examining the effects of climate change on phenotype. Previous research has identified several vegetative traits in the genus whose expression can vary based on environmental factors including snowmelt date and soil moisture. This project aims to examine how water availability, specifically soil moisture, affects the expression of vegetative traits in Ipomopsis using both spatial (2024 data) and long-term temporal comparisons. Four traits—trichome density, specific leaf area (SLA), leaf volumetric water content (VWC), and photosynthetic water use efficiency (WUE)—were measured, along with soil moisture, from plants in three populations. Additionally, historical data were analyzed to compare vegetative traits and snowmelt date over 15 years. Relationships between trait expression and water availability were found to be stronger in historical comparisons than in spatial comparisons, likely as a result of abnormally wet conditions during June of 2024. Higher soil moisture, however, predicted higher leaf VWC in this year’s data, and years with later snowmelt date had higher SLA. Trichome density did not change significantly with snowmelt date. Finally, WUE was influenced by an interaction between site and snowmelt date. 1

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4 in Knowledge Commons, 8 external

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