David D. Ackerly
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View article: Maximum water stress is decoupled from climate, traits and growth in a xeric oak
Maximum water stress is decoupled from climate, traits and growth in a xeric oak Open
Summary Widespread drought-induced forest mortality highlights the ecological consequences of climate change, yet our ability to explain, let alone predict, the spatial patterns of forest mortality remains limited. We conducted a range-wid…
View article: Sustaining Species of the Future: Climatic Nuclei for Climate Change Adaptation
Sustaining Species of the Future: Climatic Nuclei for Climate Change Adaptation Open
Conservation of climatic refugia, or locations that will buffer vulnerable species from the effects of climate change, has recently emerged as a prominent climate adaptation strategy. Here, we introduce an important and complementary conce…
View article: Contrasting demographic processes underlie uphill shifts in a desert ecosystem
Contrasting demographic processes underlie uphill shifts in a desert ecosystem Open
Climate change is projected to cause extensive plant range shifts, and, in many cases such shifts already are underway. Most long‐term studies of range shifts measure emergent changes in species distributions but not the underlying demogra…
View article: Characterizing Soil and Bedrock Water Use of Native California Vegetation
Characterizing Soil and Bedrock Water Use of Native California Vegetation Open
The effective characterization of landscape water balance components—evapotranspiration, runoff, recharge, and soil storage—is critical for understanding the integrated effects of the water balance on vegetation dynamics, water availabilit…
View article: Climatic variation allows montane willows to escape an adaptive trade‐off
Climatic variation allows montane willows to escape an adaptive trade‐off Open
Summary Adaptive responses to climate change, based on heritable variation in stress tolerance, may be important for plant population persistence. It is unclear which populations will mount the strongest future adaptive responses. It may b…
View article: Unoccupied aerial system (UAS) Structure-from-Motion canopy fuel parameters: Multisite area-based modelling across forests in California, USA
Unoccupied aerial system (UAS) Structure-from-Motion canopy fuel parameters: Multisite area-based modelling across forests in California, USA Open
International audience
View article: A tree's view of the terrain: downscaling bioclimate variables to high resolution using a novel multi‐level species distribution model
A tree's view of the terrain: downscaling bioclimate variables to high resolution using a novel multi‐level species distribution model Open
Fine‐scale spatial climate variation fosters biodiversity and buffers it from climate change, but ecological studies are constrained by the limited accessibility of relevant fine‐scale climate data. In this paper we introduce a novel form …
View article: Topography influences diurnal and seasonal microclimate fluctuations in hilly terrain environments of coastal California
Topography influences diurnal and seasonal microclimate fluctuations in hilly terrain environments of coastal California Open
Understanding the topographic basis for microclimatic variation remains fundamental to predicting the site level effects of warming air temperatures. Quantifying diurnal fluctuation and seasonal extremes in relation to topography offers in…
View article: A framework to study and predict functional trait syndromes using phylogenetic and environmental data
A framework to study and predict functional trait syndromes using phylogenetic and environmental data Open
Traits do not evolve in isolation but often as part of integrated trait syndromes, yet the relative contributions of environmental effects and evolutionary history on traits and their correlations are not easily resolved. In the present st…
View article: Topography influences diurnal and seasonal microclimate fluctuations in hilly terrain environments of coastal California
Topography influences diurnal and seasonal microclimate fluctuations in hilly terrain environments of coastal California Open
Understanding the topographic basis for microclimatic variation remains fundamental to predicting the site level effects of warming air temperatures. Quantifying diurnal fluctuation and seasonal extremes in relation to topography offer ins…
View article: Plasticity, geographic variation and trait coordination in blue oak drought physiology
Plasticity, geographic variation and trait coordination in blue oak drought physiology Open
Summary Our ability to predict drought stress across the landscape remains limited. This uncertainty stems in part from an incomplete understanding of within-species variation in hydraulic physiology, particularly coordinated variation acr…
View article: Climate change, tree demography, and thermophilization in western US forests
Climate change, tree demography, and thermophilization in western US forests Open
Climate change is driving widespread changes in ecological communities. Warming temperatures often shift community composition toward more heat-tolerant taxa. The factors influencing the rate of this “thermophilization” process remain uncl…
View article: LATE PLANTING SHORTENS THE FLOWERING PERIOD AND REDUCES FECUNDITY IN LASTHENIA CALIFORNICA
LATE PLANTING SHORTENS THE FLOWERING PERIOD AND REDUCES FECUNDITY IN LASTHENIA CALIFORNICA Open
Modifications in the timing of life-history events can alter the biotic and abiotic environments experienced during an organism's lifetime. In plants, germination timing plays a critical role in relation to seasonal environmental condition…
View article: PARTITIONING GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMPONENTS OF PHENOLOGICAL VARIATION IN QUERCUS DOUGLASII (FAGACEAE)
PARTITIONING GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMPONENTS OF PHENOLOGICAL VARIATION IN QUERCUS DOUGLASII (FAGACEAE) Open
Oaks (genus Quercus) often display a large range of phenotypic variation across many of their traits. The contribution of genetic and environmental sources, and their interaction, to this variation can be partitioned experimentally using c…
View article: Global wind patterns shape genetic differentiation, asymmetric gene flow, and genetic diversity in trees
Global wind patterns shape genetic differentiation, asymmetric gene flow, and genetic diversity in trees Open
Significance It is unknown whether wind currents shape large-scale gene flow in terrestrial organisms such as plants, though analogous river and ocean currents are known to strongly influence genetic patterns in aquatic organisms. We use n…
View article: Evolutionary relationships between drought-related traits and climate shape large hydraulic safety margins in western North American oaks
Evolutionary relationships between drought-related traits and climate shape large hydraulic safety margins in western North American oaks Open
Significance A fundamental association between sustained water transport and downstream tissue survival should select for xylem that avoids embolism in long-lived woody plants. Previous studies suggest that long-vessel species, such as oak…
View article: Natural selection maintains species despite frequent hybridization in the desert shrub <i>Encelia</i>
Natural selection maintains species despite frequent hybridization in the desert shrub <i>Encelia</i> Open
Significance In Baja California, the deserts meet the coastal dunes in a narrow transition visible even from satellite images. We study two species pairs of desert shrubs ( Encelia ) that occur across this transition. Although these specie…
View article: Topographic heterogeneity lengthens the duration of pollinator resources
Topographic heterogeneity lengthens the duration of pollinator resources Open
The availability of sufficient and diverse resources across time is important for maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In this study, we examine the potential for variation in environmental conditions across topographic g…
View article: Plant science decadal vision 2020–2030: Reimagining the potential of plants for a healthy and sustainable future
Plant science decadal vision 2020–2030: Reimagining the potential of plants for a healthy and sustainable future Open
Plants, and the biological systems around them, are key to the future health of the planet and its inhabitants. The Plant Science Decadal Vision 2020–2030 frames our ability to perform vital and far‐reaching research in plant systems scien…
View article: Climate‐change refugia: biodiversity in the slow lane
Climate‐change refugia: biodiversity in the slow lane Open
Climate‐change adaptation focuses on conducting and translating research to minimize the dire impacts of anthropogenic climate change, including threats to biodiversity and human welfare. One adaptation strategy is to focus conservation on…
View article: Topoclimates, refugia, and biotic responses to climate change
Topoclimates, refugia, and biotic responses to climate change Open
Plant distributions are strongly influenced by both climate and topography. In an analysis of geographic and topographic distributions for selected tree species in California, we found that tree populations are increasingly restricted to e…
View article: Weather underground: Subsurface hydrologic processes mediate tree vulnerability to extreme climatic drought
Weather underground: Subsurface hydrologic processes mediate tree vulnerability to extreme climatic drought Open
Drought extent and severity have increased and are predicted to continue to increase in many parts of the world. Understanding tree vulnerability to drought at both individual and species levels is key to ongoing forest management and prep…
View article: Mismatch managed? Phenological phase extension as a strategy to manage phenological asynchrony in plant–animal mutualisms
Mismatch managed? Phenological phase extension as a strategy to manage phenological asynchrony in plant–animal mutualisms Open
Species‐specific shifts in phenology (timing of periodic life cycle events) are occurring with climate change and are already disrupting interactions within and among trophic levels. Phenological phase duration (e.g. beginning to end of fl…
View article: Natural selection maintains species despite widespread hybridization in the desert shrub<i>Encelia</i>
Natural selection maintains species despite widespread hybridization in the desert shrub<i>Encelia</i> Open
Natural selection is an important driver of genetic and phenotypic differentiation between species. A powerful way to test the role of natural selection in the formation and maintenance of species is to study species complexes in which pot…
View article: Plant hydraulic traits reveal islands as refugia from worsening drought
Plant hydraulic traits reveal islands as refugia from worsening drought Open
Relatively mesic environments within arid regions may be important conservation targets as ‘climate change refugia’ for species persistence in the face of worsening drought conditions. Semi-arid southern California and the relatively mesic…
View article: No local adaptation in leaf or stem xylem vulnerability to embolism, but consistent vulnerability segmentation in a North American oak
No local adaptation in leaf or stem xylem vulnerability to embolism, but consistent vulnerability segmentation in a North American oak Open
Summary Vulnerability to embolism varies between con‐generic species distributed along aridity gradients, yet little is known about intraspecific variation and its drivers. Even less is known about intraspecific variation in tissues other …