1. Assessing the Interannual Variation in Vegetative Response to Climate in Spring Valley, NV
Lorenzo Apodaca
2/13/12

2. Effects of climate change
Lengthening of growing season
Reduction in total winter snow pack
Increase in water stress
Changes in species composition
Shifts in plant ecotones
Spread of invasive species
Animate each term
Associate each with a picture

3. Spring Valley Directly west of GBNP (NE NV) Mainly mixed shrubland
Location of one of the towers in Snake Range transect
Perhaps skip most of this information and only show a slide mentioning the relation to the Snake transect

4. Linking plant growth response to past climate variability
Goal : Establish empirical relationship between big sagebrush growth ring indices and remotely-sensed NDVI
Linking plant growth response to past climate variability
Provides a direct link between RS measurements of relative plant health status to a measure of plant productivity
Relationship between wood development and seasonal precipitation

5. 119 stems from within the valley
Sample collection complete

6. Stem Stats Avg. ring count = 45 (s = 14) Max. count = 77
Min. count = 22
60% of stems date up to 1970

7. Skeleton Plot
1974
1989
1996
2007
1959
2002

8. Average growing season NDVI

9. Future Work Ring indices of all 128 sagebrush stems samples and sites
Requires accurate dating of all stem rings
Determine ring signal beyond the site level
Examine relationship between ring indices and NDVI
Between growth/development and climate

10. Acknowledgements UNLV Advisory Committee Devitt Lab Dr. Dale Devitt
Dr. Lynn Fenstermaker
Dr. Stan Smith
Dr. Paul Schulte
Devitt Lab
Lena Wright
Amanda Wagner
Brian Bird
Special thanks
Fred Landau
Ely BLM
Funded by NSF EPSCoR seed grant

11. Devitt et al, Ecohydrology 2010.

12. SV25-2