Foundation plant species provide resilience and microclimatic heterogeneity in drylands.

ABSTRACT: Climate change profoundly influences plants and animals in all ecosystems including drylands such as semi-arid and arid scrublands and grasslands. At the peak of an extended megadrought in the Southwestern USA, the microclimatic refuges provided by foundation plant species and through associated vegetation were examined. Shrubs and open interstitial spaces without a canopy but with annual plants were instrumented in 2016 and the wet season of 2017 in the central drylands of California. In both years and all seasons tested, vegetation significantly mediated fine-scale near-surface air temperature and relative soil moisture content-defined here as microclimate. The foundation species with other vegetation provided the most significant thermal refuge potential capacity for other plants and an

SUBMITTER: Lortie CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9606251 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature