July 9, 2010 As the mercury rises outdoors, it's a fitting time
to consider the effects of summertime droughts and global
warming on ecosystems. Complex interactions among temperature,
water cycling, and plant communities create a tangled web of
questions that need to be answered as we face a rapidly changing
climate. Drs. Emily Limm and Todd Dawson (University of
California, Berkeley) recently tackled one aspect of the
challenging question of how climate change can impact plant
communities that obtain water from fog. Their results are
published in the July issue of the American Journal of Botany.
Fog is an important source of water to ecosystems around the
world, because fog allows plants to stay hydrated even during
times without rain. Fog may condense and drip to the soil, where
it can be taken up by roots. Alternatively, some plants are able
to absorb the water from fog through their leaves, allowing
these plants to immediately benefit from the atmospheric
moisture that may never reach the forest floor. T