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Abstract
The California drought of 2012 to 2014 was the most severe drought on record for the last century and likely millennium. Warm temperatures with below-average precipitation compounded over the three-year period, creating significant and sustained aridity over the course of three growing seasons throughout the coast redwood ecosystem. The citizen science project, Fern Watch, tracked the morphological response of
Polystichum munitum (Western sword fern) in the coast redwood forest to the recent drought across a plot network spanning 10 sites and a latitudinal gradient of more than 800 km. Annually, tagged
P. munitum individuals in the study were monitored for changes in crown size.
Parent Publication
Citation
Burns, Emily E.; Cowan, Peter; Baxter, Wendy; Zierten, Deborah; Pittermann, Jarmilla. 2017. Western sword fern avoids the extreme drought of 2012-2014. In: Standiford, Richard B.; Valachovic, Yana, tech cords. Coast redwood science symposium—2016: Past successes and future direction. Proceedings of a workshop. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-258. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: 319-321.
