Publications by authors named "Meghan Blumstein"

Scientists must have an integrative understanding of ecology and evolution across spatial and temporal scales to predict how species will respond to global change. Although comprehensively investigating these processes in nature is challenging, the infrastructure and data from long-term ecological research networks can support cross-disciplinary investigations. We propose using these networks to advance our understanding of fundamental evolutionary processes and responses to global change.

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Selection causes local adaptation across populations within species and simultaneously divergence between species. However, it is unclear if either the force of or the response to selection is similar across these scales. We show that natural selection drives divergence between closely related species in a pattern that is distinct from local adaptation within species.

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Forests are facing unprecedented levels of stress from pest and disease outbreaks, disturbance, fragmentation, development, and a changing climate. These selective agents act to alter forest composition from regional to cellular levels. Thus, a central challenge for understanding how forests will be impacted by future change is how to integrate across scales of biology.

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Leaf-out in temperate forests is a critical transition point each spring and advancing with global change. The mechanism linking phenological variation to external cues is poorly understood. Nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) availability may be key.

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Woody plant species store nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) for many functions. While known to buffer against fluctuations in photosynthetic supply, such as at night, NSC stores are also thought to buffer against environmental extremes, such as drought or freezing temperatures by serving as either back-up energy reserves or osmolytes. However, a clear picture of how NSCs are shaped by climate is still lacking.

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Trade-offs among carbon sinks constrain how trees physiologically, ecologically, and evolutionarily respond to their environments. These trade-offs typically fall along a productive growth to conservative, bet-hedging continuum. How nonstructural carbohydrates (NSCs) stored in living tree cells (known as carbon stores) fit in this trade-off framework is not well understood.

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Fire is a major selective force on arid grassland communities, favoring traits such as the smoke-induced seed germination response seen in a wide variety of plant species. However, little is known about the relevance of smoke as a cue for plants beyond the seedling stage.We exposed a fire-adapted savanna tree, (=) , to smoke and compared nutrient concentrations in leaf and root tissues to unexposed controls.

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Trees' total amount of non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) stores and the proportion of these stores residing as insoluble starch are vital traits for individuals living in variable environments. However, our understanding of how stores vary in response to environmental stress is poorly understood as the genetic component of storage is rarely accounted for in studies. Here, we quantified variation in NSC traits in branch samples taken from over 600 clonally transplanted black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) trees grown in two common gardens.

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We describe how to predict population-level allele frequency change at loci associated with locally adapted traits under future climate conditions. Our method can identify populations that are at higher risk of local extinction and those that might be prime targets for conservation intervention. We draw on previously developed community ecology statistical methods and apply them in novel ways to plant genomes.

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Forests absorb a large fraction of anthropogenic CO2 emission, but their ability to continue to act as a sink under climate change depends in part on plant species undergoing rapid adaptation. Yet models of forest response to climate change currently ignore local adaptation as a response mechanism. Thus, considering the evolution of intraspecific trait variation is necessary for reliable, long-term species and climate projections.

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