Talk: Dr. Danielle Ulrich of MSU

Join the Buffalo Bill Center of the West for free lunchtime talk, "Functional traits underlie specialist-generalist strategies in whitebark pine and limber pine," presented by Dr. Danielle Ulrich of Montana State University.
 

The in-person talk takes place in the Center’s Coe Auditorium, with a virtual option available at: https://us02web.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_SS4izMG_Rwaa2bxSqZO8gw
 

Examining plant life history strategies such as generalist and specialist strategies can improve our understanding of how forests will respond to future climates. Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis, PIAL) and limber pine (Pinus flexilis, PIFL) are two threatened high-elevation pines that have similar growth and morphology, yet contrasting elevational distributions with PIAL viewed as a specialist inhabiting a narrower elevation range, and PIFL as a generalist inhabiting a broader elevation range.
 

In her research, Ulrich and her team compared the physiological and morphological traits of greenhouse-grown 5-year-old PIAL and PIFL to identify physiological mechanisms that underlie species establishment and survival, and how juvenile physiology contributes to their contrasting distributions and their generalist-specialist strategies.