Kevin C. Grady

Northern Arizona University | NAU · School of Forestry

We examined the hypothesis that genotypic variation among populations of commonly co-occurring phreatophytic trees (Populus fremontii, Salix gooddingii) and the shrub (Salix exigua) regulates aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) at a hot site at the edge of the species’ distribution. We used a provenance trial in which replicated genotypes f...

Natural selection as a result of plant-plant interactions can lead to local biotic adaptation. This may occur where species frequently interact and compete intensely for resources limiting growth, survival, and reproduction. Selection is demonstrated by comparing a genotype interacting with con- or hetero-specific sympatric neighbor genotypes with...

Plant functional traits involved in carbon and water acquisition are likely to be adaptive across the range of a species if the availability of these resources varies across this range and are limiting to growth or fitness. At the interspecific level, leaf economic traits associated with rapid resource capture are correlated with fast growth rates....

Mycorrhizal restoration benefits are widely acknowledged, yet factors underpinning this success remain unclear. To illuminate when natural regeneration might be sufficient, we investigated the degree mycorrhizal fungi would colonize Populus fremontii (Fremont cottonwood) 2 years after the restoration of a riparian corridor, in the presence of an ad...

The type of mycorrhizal associations (i.e. ecto‐ or arbuscular mycorrhizal) formed by trees is of fundamental importance for a range of soil properties and processes in forests, yet their importance for the distribution of other important soil biota such as bacteria is largely unknown. We used an experimental common garden and amplicon sequencing t...

Recent attention to mangroves' social‐ecological benefits has increased funding for restoration projects. Despite such proliferation, little is known about the mangrove restoration funding landscape. To examine multiscale funding flows and relationships to restoration organizations and their project characteristics, we analyzed 115 surveys complete...

Displacement of diverse native plant communities by low-diversity invasive communities is a global problem. In the western United States, the displacement of sagebrush-dominated communities by cheatgrass has increased since the 1920s. Restoration outcomes are poor, potentially due to soil alteration by cheatgrass. We explored the poorly understood...

Abstract Selection on quantitative traits by heterogeneous climatic conditions can lead to substantial trait variation across a species range. In the context of rapidly changing environments, however, it is equally important to understand selection on trait plasticity. To evaluate the role of selection in driving divergences in traits and their ass...

Selection on quantitative traits by divergent climatic conditions can lead to substantial trait variation across a species range. In the context of rapidly changing environments, however, it is equally important to understand selection on trait plasticity. To evaluate the role of selection in driving divergences in traits and their associated plast...

Climate change is threatening the persistence of many tree species via independent and interactive effects on abiotic and biotic conditions. In addition, changes in temperature, precipitation, and insect attacks can alter the traits of these trees, disrupting communities and ecosystems. For foundation species such as Populus, phytochemical traits a...

While reforestation is gaining momentum to moderate climate change via carbon sequestration, there is also an opportunity to use tree planting to confront declining global biodiversity. Where tree species vary in support of diversity, selecting appropriate species for planting could increase conservation effectiveness. We used a common garden exper...

Pollinator declines have emerged as a major conservation concern across a wide diversity of systems and taxa worldwide. In response to these concerns, active efforts to conserve pollinators are increasingly considered in agricultural landscape design and management, natural area management, and public land decision‐making. An important conservation...

The stewardship of forests across multiple human generations has potential to lead to cultural innovations fostering sustainable uses. Nevertheless, positive culture–nature interactions are often disrupted due to colonial exploitation and a lack of intrinsic value ascribed to nature in capitalist economies. There is global recognition that restorin...

The roots and rhizospheres of trees harbor diverse microbial communities that can modulate plant competition and facilitation, thereby influencing plant community dynamics. Understanding the factors structuring microbial communities is valuable for predicting how plant communities assemble. In temperate forests, host identity, biotic neighborhood,...

We investigated early survival, growth, and carbon isotope discrimination of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson var. scopulorum Engelm.) seedlings from different provenances using common gardens across an elevational gradient in order to examine the potential for adaptation to extreme environments and constraints to artificial regen...

A study on defoliation of selected tree species was conducted at a forest restoration site located at Species Demo Plot in Luasong, Tawau Sabah. The study site is part of the INIKEA Forest Rehabilitation Project managed by Yayasan Sabah. The objective of this study was to determine the type and variation of defoliation symptoms observed on the foli...

Efforts to maintain the function of critical ecosystems under climate change often begin with foundation species. In the southwestern US, cottonwood trees support diverse communities in riparian ecosystems that are threatened by rising temperatures. Genetic variation within cottonwoods shapes communities and ecosystems, but these effects may be mod...

Humans have interacted with trees for millennia and the strength of such interactions determines the long-term social values of trees and forests. Such ecocultural linkages could be important to promote during reforestation efforts, potentially helping to turn the tide on the current rapid extinction of cultural and biological diversity. In additio...

Non‐structural carbohydrate (NSC) storage may be under strong selection in woody plant species that occur across broad environmental gradients. We therefore investigated carbon (C) allocation strategies in a widespread non‐native woody plant, Tamarix . We predicted that genotypes with exposure to episodic freeze events would show elevated NSC conce...

Restoration treatments in Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass)-invaded sagebrush habitat has often produced poor results. This is perhaps due to multifaceted ecological changes associated with cheatgrass invasion like reduced water availability, altered nutrient availability, and shifts in soil microbial communities. We tested whether suppressing cheatgras...

Rapidly colonizing species often thrive in a wide-range of conditions due to a high degree of phenotypic plasticity that results in populations of “general purpose” genotypes. Alternatively, species with high genetic variation could rapidly respond to forces of selection such that a local population evolves traits that provide an advantage in its l...

Widespread tree species span large climatic gradients that often lead to high levels of local adaptation and phenotypic divergence across their range. To evaluate the relative roles of selection and drift in driving divergence in phenotypic traits, we compared molecular and quantitative genetic variation in Populus fremontii (Fremont cottonwood), u...

Non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) storage may be under strong selection in woody plant species that occur across strong environmental gradients. We therefore investigated carbon allocation strategies in a widely distributed, introduced woody plant. We predicted genotypes from cold climates with exposure to episodic freeze events, would have elevate...

Abstract Many plants are becoming increasingly maladapted to their environments due to changing climate and environmental conditions. It is, therefore, important to quantitatively evaluate what species, populations, and genotypes will survive in projected climate change scenarios and the implications this can have for associated biodiversity. We ev...

The coordination of traits from individual organs to whole plants is under strong selection because of environmental constraints on resource acquisition and use. However, the tight coordination of traits may provide underlying mechanisms of how locally adapted plant populations can become maladapted because of climate change. To better understand l...

Populus fremontii (Fremont cottonwood) is recognized as one of the most important foundation tree species in the southwestern USA and northern Mexico because of its ability to structure communities across multiple trophic levels, drive ecosystem processes and influence biodiversity via genetic-based functional trait variation. However, the areal ex...

Effective reforestation of degraded tropical forests depends on selecting planting material suited to the stressful environments typical at restoration sites that can be exacerbated by increased duration and intensity of dry spells expected with climate change. While reforestation efforts in non‐tropical systems are incorporating drought‐adapted ge...

Species faced with rapidly shifting environments must be able to move, adapt, or acclimate in order to survive. One mechanism to meet this challenge is phenotypic plasticity: altering phenotype in response to environmental change. Here, we investigated the magnitude, direction, and consequences of changes in two key phenology traits (fall bud set a...

This study focuses on a common garden provenance approach to compare physiological and morphological traits of 160 genotypes sourced from 16 broadly distributed (Populus fremontii) populations.

Patterns of woody-plant mortality have been linked to global-scale environmental changes, such as extreme drought, heat stress, more frequent and intense fires, and episodic outbreaks of insects and pathogens. Although many studies have focussed on survival and mortality in response to specific physiological stresses, little attention has been paid...

Understanding the magnitude and pattern of intraspecific variation in tree adaptation to drought is needed to evaluate forest capacity to respond to climate change and for management planning. This understanding is important for species growing at ecotonal sites near the trailing edge of their geographic range where impacts of climate warming are p...

Climate change, particularly increased aridity, poses a significant threat to plants and the biotic communities they support. Dioecious species may be especially vulnerable to climate change given that they often exhibit spatial segregation of the sexes, reinforced by physiological and morphological specialization of each sex to different microhabi...

Assisted migration of warm-adapted genotypes to currently cooler climates may reduce maladaptation from future climate change. Few assisted migration trials have considered limitations of the cooler climates and pathogens currently present at transplant sites. This is especially important to consider in riparian ecosystems that are priority targets...

We examined the impact climate change (CC) will have on the availability of climatically suitable habitat for three native and one exotic riparian species. Due to its increasing prevalence in arid regions throughout the western US, we predicted that an exotic species, Tamarix, would have the greatest increase in suitable habitat relative to native...

Background/Question/Methods Rapid climate change poses a significant threat to plant species and the biotic communities they support, to the extent that mass extinctions are possible, if not likely over the next century. Dioecious species may be especially at risk to the effects of climate change given that these species often display a spatial s...

Background In the face of climate change, shifts in genetic structure and composition of terrestrial plant species are occurring worldwide. Because different genotypes of these plant species support different soil biota and soil processes, shifts in genetics are likely to have cascading effects on ecosystems. Scope We explore plant genetic effects...

Although the genetics of foundation plant species is known to be important drivers of biodiversity and community structure, and climate change is known to have ecological and evolutionary consequences for plants, no studies have integrated these concepts. Here we examine how their combined effects are likely to affect the diversity of future commun...

1. Plant functional traits involved in carbon and water acquisition are likely to be adaptive across the range of a species if the availability of these resources varies across this range and are limiting to growth or fitness. At the interspecific level, leaf economic traits associated with rapid resource capture are correlated with fast growth rat...

As part of a restoration project, multiple genotypes of two tree species, Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) and Goodding's willow (Salix gooddingii), and one shrub species, Coyote willow (S. exigua), were experimentally planted in different proportions at the Palo Verde Eco-logical Reserve near Blythe, California, U.S.A. These com-mon woody pl...

European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), an ornamental and fencerow shrub native to Eurasia, is a prolific invader throughout woodlands of the northeastern and midwestern United States, and southern Canada. The spread of R. cathartica may result in the replacement of native species and the alteration of ecosystem processes. We present evidence of a...

Ant–acacia mutualisms are conspicuous biotic associations in Savannah and neotropical ecosystems; however, the effects of tree size and forest structure on ant behaviour and tree traits are rarely examined. We tested two hypotheses related to these effects: (1) ant responses to disturbance are influenced by tree size and forest basal area; and (2)...

Urban biodiversity conservation needs a firm scientific foundation, one that draws upon active and regionally calibrated research programs. Until recently this foundation has not existed. In this paper we examine the way in which the emerging discipline of restoration ecology in an urban context can learn from the experiences of ongoing restoration...

Following Euro-American settlement in the late 1800s, fire suppression and livestock grazing in ponderosa pine-bunchgrass ecosystems of the southwestern US resulted in the replacement of grass openings with dense stands of ponderosa pine. This, in turn, has led to apparent decreases in decomposition, net N mineralization, and soil respiration (i.e....

European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), a prevalent invasive shrub in relict woodlands throughout Northeastern Illinois, alters certain soil properties in a manner that may have importance for the long-term conservation management of these systems. We found that soil in areas of the woodland where buckthorn dominates have higher percentage of nitr...

We investigated the response of community assemblages of carabids (Coleoptera: Carabidae) and tenebrionids (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) from June to August in 2003 and 2004 on ponderosa pine forest stands of various conditions that were created by fuel reduction treatments (thinning, and thinning plus prescribed burning) and wildfires between 1987 a...