Arboretum Phenology and Climate Response (3.44158)
Date: 2011 – 2016Creator: Fahey, Bob
Type: Dataset
Description:Phenology monitoring was conducted by Fahey, Carrier, and multiple volunteers in the spring and fall of each year from 2011 through 2016. The dataset includes ~685 individuals from the Juglandaceae, Midwest, Northern Illinois, Ozark, Quercus, Tilia, and Ulmaceae collections at The Morton Arboretum. Traits monitored include: fruiting, bud condition, leaf size, flower condition, and leaf fall, and leaf color. Protocols can be found in T://Fahey/Current Projects/ Arboretum Phenology and Climate Response/Protocols.
ILDNR/INAI Tree Cores (3.44162)
Date: 2012Creator: Fahey, Bob
Type: Dataset
Description:The dataset consists of nearly 200 tree cores from 11 different sites in northern and southern Illinois. Ring-widths were measured under magnification of a binocular microscope to the nearest 0.001 mm with a Velmex Unislide slide-stage micrometer interfaced with a computer and MeasureJ2X program.
Project conducted in 2012. Cores were collected in 1976 and 2008-2011.
Invasive Species Phenology (IMSA SIR 2017) (3.44164)
Date: 2017 – 2018Creator: Rollinson, Christine R.
Type: Dataset
Description:
Invasive and native forbs and shrubs were identified by Rollinson, Lie, and Dhyani, and Duckett in the King’s Grove area of the Hidden Lake Forest Preserve. Monitoring is primarily conducted by Liu and Dhyani. Forbs include invasive garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), geum, and ___. Shrubs include invasive buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), invasive honeysuckle (genus Lonicera), and black raspberry (Genus Rubus). Forb traits monitored include initial growth, leaves, flowers/flower buds, open flowers, fruits, ripe fruits, and recent fruit/seed drop. Shrub traits monitored include bud burst, leaves, leaf size, leaf color, leaf fall, flowers/flower buds, open flowers, pollen release, fruits, ripe fruits, and fruit/seed drop. Both forb and shrub monitoring follow National Phenology Network Protocols.
Phenology of Oaks from around the world (3.44169)
Date: 2017 – 2018Creator: Rollinson, Christine R.
Type: Dataset
Description:Phenology monitoring is being conducted by Rollinson, Duckett, and multiple volunteers in the spring, summer, and fall beginning in 2017. The dataset currently includes 73 oak trees in The Morton Arboretum Oak Collection. Monitoring is conducted once per week, and traits monitored include bud burst, leaves, leaf size, leaf color, leaf fall, flowers/flower buds, open flowers, pollen release, fruits, ripe fruits, and fruit/seed drop. Monitoring follows National Phenology Network (NPN) protocols. Trees were selected to include up to three individuals, randomly selected, from major North American and European species.
Ecosystem model simulations of effects of soil and fire on prairie-forest ecosystem states (3.57671)
Date: 2018 – 2019Type: Dataset
Description:In the Midwest, woodland and prairie ecosystems historically existed side-by-side, with sharp transitions between the two. Understanding how this boundary developed is crucial to understanding how climate change will affect this boundary. Fire, soil water holding capacity, and climate play major roles in ecosystem development on a global scale. However, their roles are difficult to discern at the local scale. We designed a factorial experiment that tested the effects of climate as a driver and two soil parameters that regulate fire events: texture, which regulates soil water holding capacity, and the moisture threshold, which prevents fire from occurring. We ran the model Ecosystem Demography 2.0 (ED2) for 500 years, allowing the ecosystems to self-assemble into a simplified grass-oak system via primary succession. With fire turned off, none of the ecosystems developed into a prairie. With fire turned on, the fire return interval varied between 1 and 8 years. Interestingly, a longer fire return interval of 7 to 8 years generated forested ecosystems in soils with a high water holding capacity and prairie ecosystems in soils with a low water holding capacity. This suggests that both fire and soil are important influences in the development of prairie ecosystems.
The Future of Trees: Hope in a Changing Climate (3.64161)
Date: 2018Creator: The Morton Arboretum
Type: Video
The Impacts of Fine Root Mass and Soil Nitrogen Availability on Nitrogen Uptake Rate in Trees (3.67056)
Date: 2019Type: Dataset
Description:
Recent developments in Earth System Models have granted researchers attempting to model global climate change significant new ability (Fisher et al., 2017). These models use carbon dioxide output and sequestration rates to calculate atmospheric CO2 levels and the Earth’s potential to trap heat (Dybzinski, 2019). However, the models are only as good as the assumptions they make; due to a lack of research into the topic, different terrestrial models commonly make contradictory assumptions about the roles of nitrogen availability and fine root mass in a tree’s rate of nitrogen uptake, leading to inaccuracy and inconsistency (Dybzinski et al., 2019). As most of North American tree growth is nitrogen-limited, the rate at which a particular species is able to absorb nitrogen is critical to its ability to grow and take up carbon--and to the models aiming to predict these rates. In this study, we attempted to quantify the true roles of each factor in tree nitrogen uptake rate and predicted that nitrogen availability would have far greater effect than fine root mass. In 18 single-species plots at the Morton Arboretum, we obtained the nitrate and ammonium availability per area, fine root mass of target species per area, and nitrogen uptake rate of the plot’s target species trees per area. We found that there is blankity blank relationship between fine root mass and uptake rate and absolutely blank relationship between nitrogen availability and uptake rate. We hope that these results will be incorporated into existing ESM models to allow for more accurate assessments of forests across the world and to inform efforts to understand global carbon sequestration.