Effects of Elevated Atmospheric CO₂ and/or O₃ on Intra- and Interspecific Competitive Ability of Aspen

Abstract

Three model communities of trembling aspen (monoculture, and mixed with either paper birch or sugar maple) were grown for seven years in elevated atmospheric CO₂ and O₃ using Free Air CO₂ Enrichment (FACE) technology. We utilized trends in species' importance, calculated as an index of volume growth and survival, as indications of shifting community composition. For the pure aspen communities, different clones emerged as having the highest change in relative importance values depending on the pollutant exposure. In the control and elevated CO₂ treatments, clone 42E was rapidly becoming the most successful clone while under elevated O₃, clone 8 L emerged as the dominant clone. In fact, growth of clone 8 L was greater in the elevated O₃ treatment compared to controls. For the mixed aspen-birch community, importance of aspen and birch changed by - 16 % and + 62 %, respectively, in the controls. In the treatments, however, importance of aspen and birch changed by - 27 % and + 87 %, respectively, in elevated O₃, and by - 10 % and + 45 %, respectively, in elevated CO₂. Thus, the presence of elevated O₃ hastened conversion of stands to paper birch, whereas the presence of elevated CO₂ delayed it. Relative importance of aspen and maple changed by - 2 % and + 3 %, respectively, after seven years in the control treatments. But in elevated O₃, relative importance of aspen and maple changed by - 2 % and + 5 %, respectively, and in elevated CO₂ by + 9 and - 20 %, respectively. Thus, elevated O₃ slightly increases the rate of conversion of aspen stands to sugar maple, but maple is placed at a competitive disadvantage to aspen under elevated CO₂.

Key words

Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) - paper birch (Betula papyrifera) - trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) - global change - growth.

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