Reference no: EM133512357

Case Study: Climate change is a multifaceted phenomenon with far-reaching consequences that affect ecosystems, biodiversity, and human societies. Grimm et al. (2013) discuss the extensive impacts of climate change on ecosystem structure and function in the United States of America. The authors highlight how rising temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and other climate-related changes are affecting ecological systems, biodiversity, and biogeochemical processes, emphasizing the urgent need for understanding and addressing these complex challenges.

Question a) Grimm et al. (2013) write that "the increase in shrubs and grass-like plants could reduce the competitive performance of other plant types." Describe an experiment that you could conduct to confidently determine exploitative competition between shrubs and other plant types.

Question b) Grimm et al. (2013) comment that "biome shifts have contributed to increased net primary productivity (NPP) at zones of forest expansion, as a result of warming, whereas reduced NPP has been observed at the boreal-temperate transition due to drought stress." What does this imply for actual evapotranspiration in these two zones?

Question c) Grimm et al. (2013) define biomes as "ecosystems with the same dominant plant life-forms." i. Compare and contrast this definition with the definition in your BIOL*2060 textbook, and ii. explain whether "colonization by plants that initiate changes in ecosystem state" would constitute a biome shift based on each of these two definitions.

Question d) Based on Figure 2a in Grimm et al. (2013), write two alternative mechanistic hypotheses (as defined in Betts et al (2021)) about how changes in sea ice will impact ice algae (i.e., the community of algae that lives on sea ice).