Vegetation community characteristics and dendrochronology of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) in the southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia

• Main Author: Carlson, Kimberly
• Other Authors: Starzomski, Brian M.
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: whitebark pine; subalpine fir; Coast Mountains; British Columbia; dendrochronology; snowpack; understory plant communities; aleutian low
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/4819

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is an endangered keystone tree species growing at the highest elevations in the mountain ranges of western North America. Across its range, whitebark pine is faced with a number of threats including fire suppression, mountain pine beetle, white pine blister rust, and climate change. Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat facing the species, yet it is the least understood. Most studies rely on model predictions and only look at the impacts on whitebark pine itself, not taking into consideration the other bird, mammal, and plant communities that are associated with it. In order to assess the potential effects of climate change on whitebark pine communities in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia, this thesis examined the vegetation associations and climate controls currently shaping the communities. My results showed that whitebark pine is growing in the open away from other subalpine tree species. This suggests that whitebark pine is not facilitating other subalpine tree species, contrary to what has been shown in the Rocky Mountains. Evidence of a distinct suite of understory vegetation associated with whitebark pine is weak and inconclusive. Differences in understory vegetation appear to be mainly due to site differences in climate, soils, and topography. Age distributions constructed from tree cores revealed that whitebark pine decline at lower elevation sites may be due to successional advancement to subalpine fir, and subalpine fir is currently encroaching into higher elevation sites. A dendrochronological assessment revealed that winter conditions, including snowpack, temperature, and the Aleutian Low Pressure Index (ALPI) were the most limiting to whitebark pine growth at high-elevation sites, but biotic factors including disease and competition appear to be more important than climate in determining annual ring growth at lower elevation sites. Bootstrapped correlations between annual ring widths and snowpack records showed that tree responses to ...