Faithin Omaha eBook Collection

Download or read book Plant and Insect Responses to Experimental Warming in a Temperate Grassland written by Troy Shaun Dunn and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community structure is being altered by direct and indirect effects of climate change. Increasing temperatures can threaten community structure resulting in the disruption of interactions within those communities most sensitive to changes in climate. Among those communities at risk for change is the North American grassland habitat and its resident insect community. Climate change can potentially affect primary production and the abundance and diversity of both plants and animals in different ecosystems. Here we have used open-top chambers to study the impact warming temperatures have on the resident plant and insect community on grassland habitat in order to better understand how grassland areas are affected and may change as a result of global warming, and how climate change will impact the community and ecosystem as a whole. Results show that passively warmed open-top chambers have a measureable increase of 1-4°C in ambient temperature above that of the controls. Results also show no significant treatment effects of temperature on primary production, except for litter, and no significant effect on the abundances of the resident insect community as a whole. Interestingly, results do reveal significant effects of treatment on insect taxonomic orders and families as well as significant effects on the trophic levels within the grassland habitat confirming that insects are responding in different ways to artificial warming, which can ultimately alter trophic dynamics directly and indirectly.