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Center on Global Change Seminar Series - Scott Bridgham, University of Oregon, "Climate Effects on Plant Range Distributions and Ecosystem Function in Mediterranean Grasslands: A Manipulative Experiment Embedded in a Natural Climate Gradient in the Pacific Northwest"

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Thursday, October 25, 2012
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Scott Bridgham, Environmental Science Institute/Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon
Center on Global Change Fall, 2012 Seminar Series

Pacific Northwest (PNW) prairies are an imperiled ecosystem that contain a large number of plant species with high fidelity to this habitat, many of which have their northern range limits from southwestern Oregon/northern California to Washington/southern British Columbia. The few remaining high-quality PNW prairies harbor a number of sensitive, rare, and endangered plant species that may be further at-risk with climate change. Thus, PNW prairies are an excellent model system to examine how climate change will affect the distribution of native plant species in grassland sites. We are experimentally manipulating temperature and precipitation in three upland prairie sites from central-western Washington to southwestern Oregon that represents a natural climate gradient of increasing degree of severity of Mediterranean climate. After 2 years of treatments, Dr. Bridgham will discuss his results, showing the importance of placing manipulative climate experiments in a regional context. Some responses are consistent regionally, others vary in a predictable way across the climate gradient, and others appear to be driven largely by idiosyncratic site properties.Please see More Information for a detailed abstract and speaker bio. Refreshments provided.

Contact: Crystal Hinnant