Ladwig,Laura M.; Ratajczak, Zak R.; Ocheltree, Troy W.; Hafich, Katya A.; Churchill, Amber C.; Frey, Sarah J. K.; Fuss, Colin B.; Kazanski, Clare E.; Munoz, Juan D.; Petrie, Matthew D.; Reinmann, Andrew B.; Smith, Jane G. 2016. Beyond arctic and alpine: the influence of winter climate on temperate ecosystems. Ecology. 9(2): 372–382. doi:https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0153.1/suppinfo
Winter climate is expected to change under future climate scenarios, yet the
majority of winter ecology research is focused in cold-climate
ecosystems. In many temperate
systems, it is unclear how winter climate relates to biotic responses during the
growing season. The objective of this study was to examine how winter weather relates
to plant and animal communities in a variety of terrestrial ecosystems ranging from warm
deserts to alpine tundra. Specifically, we examined the association between winter weather
and plant phenology, plant species richness, consumer abundance, and consumer richness
in 11 terrestrial ecosystems associated with the U.S. Long-Term
Ecological Research (LTER)
Network. To varying degrees, winter precipitation and temperature were correlated with
all biotic response variables. Bud break was tightly aligned with end of winter temperatures.
For half the sites, winter weather was a better predictor of plant species richness than
growing season weather. Warmer winters were correlated with lower consumer abundances
in both temperate and alpine systems. Our findings suggest winter weather may have a
strong influence on biotic activity during the growing season and should be considered in
future studies investigating the effects of climate change on both alpine and temperate
systems.
Key words: critical climate periods; ecosystem stability; global change; temperate ecosystem; U.S. LTER Network; winter.