Warmer temperatures are linked to mismatch among forest plants

 By Tara K. Miller and Richard B. Primack

“To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy.”  

- Henry David Thoreau in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers 

Many plants are responding to a warming climate by leafing out and flowering earlier in the spring. However, mismatches may occur when species respond at different rates. 

In a new study in Journal of Ecology, we showed that trees are shading out spring wildflowers across eastern North America by leafing out earlier in the spring in response to climate change. This might contribute to the loss of wildflower populations in coming decades as the climate continues to warm.

Native wildflowers, such as these Dutchman’s breeches,
are not keeping pace with trees as they advance
their leaf-out with warming temperatures
(© Andrew Cannizzaro CC-BY-2.0)

Many spring-blooming native wildflowers conduct most of their photosynthesis before the canopy trees above them leaf out and shade them over. As temperatures warm, trees and shrubs may block sunlight from reaching the forest floor earlier in the year, leading to a shrinking time period for native wildflowers to photosynthesize with full sunlight. Just a few days loss of sunlight access can mean a sizeable decrease in a wildflower’s carbon energy supply.

Our study confirms the results of an earlier study from Concord, MA that used the observations of Henry David Thoreau from the 1850s as a baseline, and extends the scope across eastern North America using data from herbarium specimens, which are pressed plants in museums.

Map of herbarium specimen collection
locations in eastern North America
(© Miller et al. 2022, Journal of Ecology)

Publication: Tara K. Miller, J. Mason Heberling, Sara E. Kuebbing, and Richard B. Primack. (2022). Warmer temperatures are linked to widespread phenological mismatch among native and non-native forest plants. Journal of Ecology. 

Ethics of remote access and technology in conservation

 By Richard B. Primack 

 

“What is called charity is no charity but the interference of a third person.”  Henry David Thoreau in his Journal. 

 

Does remote access and use of technology in conservation- related programs and research provide the intended benefit to groups that have been marginalized in the sciences?  

 

Images of conservation activities. 

In a recent paper, we describe a typology of justice-oriented principles that can be used to examine social justice in three conservation areas: (1) remote access to US national park educational programs and data; (2) digitization of natural history specimens and their use in conservation research; and (3) remote engagement in conservation-oriented citizen science.  

 

 

Typology and examples of social justice-oriented principles applicable in conservation.

 

We found that remote access increased participation, but access and benefits were not equally distributed and unanticipated consequences have not been adequately addressed.

Thriving Earth Exchange is program that helps scientists and communities ensure that conservation projects benefit all participants.

The framework that we present could be used to assess the social justice dimensions of many conservation programs, institutions, practices, and policies, and related fields of ecology, evolution, and environmental sciences.   

 

Here is the article: 

Miller-Rushing et al. 2022. Conservation ethics in the time of the pandemic: Does increasing remote access advance social justice? Biological Conservation 276: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109788

Enthusiastic Photos

Richard B. Primack  

 

“What was enthusiasm in the young man must become temperament in the mature man.”  Henry David Thoreau in his Journal. 

 

Katia Landauer presenting a pollinator poster with Richard Primack at the Boston University Undergraduate Research symposium.

Libby Ellwood, Abe Miller-Rushing, and Caroline Polgar spelling HDT (Henry David Thoreau) while attending an Ecological Society of America meeting some years ago.

Amanda Gallinat and Richard Primack spelling OPUS (the name of our NSF program) at a recent meeting at Colby College.

Richard Primack and Abe Miller-Rushing spelling OPUS at Acadia National Park.