Public Abstract

DE-SC0025434: Disentangling fire legacies and climate to advance cross-scale Earth system models

Award Status: Active

Institution: University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
UEI: NNFQH1JAPEP3
DUNS: 969663814

Most Recent Award Date: 09/12/2024
Number of Support Periods: 1
PM: Bayer, Paul

Current Budget Period: 09/01/2024 - 08/31/2026
Current Project Period: 09/01/2024 - 08/31/2026
PI: Crandall, Raelene

Supplement Budget Period: N/A

Public Abstract

Disentangling Fire Legacies and Climate to Advance Cross-Scale Earth System Models Raelene Crandall, University of Florida (Principal Investigator) Benjamin Baier, University of Florida (Co-Investigator) Jennifer Fill, University of Florida (Co-Investigator) Plant biodiversity in grasslands is strongly affected by fire regimes. Fires that burn at different times of year can change plant communities over time, affecting ecosystem functions such as carbon storage. Over the last 30 years, the global area of grasslands has shrunk significantly as a result of human activities and shifting climate conditions. As the planet’s climate continues to change, weather patterns are likely to interact with the legacies of long-term fire regimes to affect plant diversity in grasslands worldwide. Long-term studies at many different sites are necessary to understand universal effects, but studies of shifts in plant diversity are typically done at only a few sites for short periods of time (i.e., less than ten years), limiting an ability to generalize to other sites. In this project, the team will synthesize 16 long-term grassland studies from different regions of the southeastern and central United States. They will identify how long-term fire regimes (legacies) and climate affect the diversity of plant species and their traits over time and space. They will also develop predictive, trait-based models that may be used to inform Earth system models and models in other grassland regions. Specific objectives are to: 1) Determine how fire legacies and current climate patterns change plant communities and individual species over time within sites; 2) Identify trait-based functional groups and the strongest predictors (i.e., fire legacies and current climate) of their change over time across sites; and 3) Measure how the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function changes over time and space under different fire regimes and climates. This project will produce: 1) Models of change over time in plant communities with different fire legacies; 2) Models of climate and fire regime effects on variation in grassland plant traits over time; and 3) Predictive models of how biodiversity and ecosystem function are affected by climate and fire regimes over time and space. The project’s synthesis effort will benefit scientific researchers and modelers because the resulting models can be adjusted for use in other grasslands and in Earth System models.

Disentangling Fire Legacies and Climate to Advance Cross-Scale Earth System Models

Raelene Crandall, University of Florida (Principal Investigator)

Benjamin Baier, University of Florida (Co-Investigator)

Jennifer Fill, University of Florida (Co-Investigator)

Plant biodiversity in grasslands is strongly affected by fire regimes. Fires that burn at different times of year can change plant communities over time, affecting ecosystem functions such as carbon storage. Over the last 30 years, the global area of grasslands has shrunk significantly as a result of human activities and shifting climate conditions. As the planet’s climate continues to change, weather patterns are likely to interact with the legacies of long-term fire regimes to affect plant diversity in grasslands worldwide. Long-term studies at many different sites are necessary to understand universal effects, but studies of shifts in plant diversity are typically done at only a few sites for short periods of time (i.e., less than ten years), limiting an ability to generalize to other sites.

In this project, the team will synthesize 16 long-term grassland studies from different regions of the southeastern and central United States. They will identify how long-term fire regimes (legacies) and climate affect the diversity of plant species and their traits over time and space. They will also develop predictive, trait-based models that may be used to inform Earth system models and models in other grassland regions. Specific objectives are to: 1) Determine how fire legacies and current climate patterns change plant communities and individual species over time within sites; 2) Identify trait-based functional groups and the strongest predictors (i.e., fire legacies and current climate) of their change over time across sites; and 3) Measure how the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function changes over time and space under different fire regimes and climates.

This project will produce: 1) Models of change over time in plant communities with different fire legacies; 2) Models of climate and fire regime effects on variation in grassland plant traits over time; and 3) Predictive models of how biodiversity and ecosystem function are affected by climate and fire regimes over time and space. The project’s synthesis effort will benefit scientific researchers and modelers because the resulting models can be adjusted for use in other grasslands and in Earth System models.