CLIMATIC IMPACT ON WOODY PLANT INVADERS IN THE FLINT HILLS REGION OF KANSAS

Abstract

There is currently an increasing trend of woody plant encroachment into prairie landscapes. Fire regime, grazing patterns, and climatic variability are primary factors that could affect woody plant encroachment into prairies. Among these, climatic variability, including temperature and precipitation, is the most controversial and debated. In this study, I gained an insight into how climate affects woody plants in both cellular development and growth response of woody grassland invaders. This study was conducted on private property near Reading, Kansas. I collected samples from three different kinds of the habitat (prairie area, transitional area, and forest edge area). Specimen information was recorded. For each specimen, I collected three sections of small branches in the width of a 50-mL centrifuge tube for cellular experiment and had one section from the very bottom of the specimen for tree-ring dating analysis. During the laboratory analysis, I collected data on variables obtained from tree-ring dating: tree ring number and whole ring width, and cellular analysis: the averaged lumen area, average lumen diameter, and cell wall thickness in the earlywood and latewood annually, were collected. I compared these variables with climate data (monthly and seasonally precipitation and temperature) retrieved from PRISM Climate Group. I assessed the correlation coefficient of both dendrochronological and cellular parameters with the climatic variables. Also, I evaluated the different intraspecific growth in different habitats. I concluded that woody invaders grow faster in prairie areas and their growth rates are positively facilitated by precipitation; temperature in Kansas exceed the threshold that can prohibit the growth of woody invaders, and thus, does not affect the growth rate.