Basic hypotheses:

see Alba et al 2017 for details

  Present are two shelters and two control sites.  Based on a mycorrhizal associated framework, one treatment and control are dominated by Quercus rubra and Carya ovata; ectomycorrhizal associated trees.  The other treatment and control sites are dominated by Acer saccharum and Liriodendron tulipifera; arbuscular mycorrhizal associated trees.  

The objectives of this long-term study are: (1) to assess the effects of directional and prolonged changes in precipitation amount and variability on population, community and ecosystem processes; (2) to elucidate the mechanisms behind those changes, and finally (3) to predict the future state of drylands functioning under novel climate conditions.

Drought manipulations as described have been carried out starting 1999 until 2017 (18 years), while 1998 was a pretreatment year. Plans for the next future (starting 2019) are to transform the active manipulation into a passive, drought-net design. This would mean that the "old" manipulation of 3 months no precipitation (an average decrease of 20% on an annual basis), would change to a year long decrease in precipitation of 20% or any other percentage (not yet decided).

Question: Are hydraulic traits in dominant coastal sage scrub shrub species plastic in response to altered precipitation regimes and does plasticity in these traits change the shrubs risk of drought induced mortality.

Rainfall intercept shelters were established on Kentucky bluegrass invaded loamy ecological sites in pastures 13, 14, and 15 of the USDA-ARS Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory. At three different blocks, nine 2m2 plots were established in 2017. 

Each 2m2 plot is divided in half and half of the plot is burned every 2 years.

We hypothesize that:

Decreased precipitation will reduce the relative abundance of Kentucky bluegrass.

Burning will decrease the relative abundance of Kentucky bluegrass.