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170 results for “alpine plant”
Alpine butterflies want to fly high: Species and communities shift upwards faster than their host plants
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Competitors alter selection on alpine plants exposed to experimental climate change
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Data from: Avoiding impacts of phylogenetic tip-state-errors on dispersal and extirpation rates in alpine plant biogeography
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Plant dispersal strategies of high tropical alpine communities across the Andes
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Data from: Linking microenvironment modification to species interactions and demography in an alpine plant community
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Data for Lynn et al. “Soil microbes that may accompany climate warming increase alpine plant production”; accepted at Oecologia
Climate change is causing species with non-overlapping ranges to come in contact, and a key challenge is to predict the consequences of such species re-shuffling. Experiments on plants have focused largely on novel competitive interactions; other species interactions, such as plant-microbe symbioses, while less studied, may also influence plant responses to climate change. In this greenhouse study, we evaluated interactions between soil microbes and alpine-restricted plant species, simulating a warming scenario in which low elevation microbes migrate upslope into the distribution of alpine plants. We examined three alpine grasses from the Rocky Mountains, CO, USA (Poa alpina, Festuca brachyphylla, Elymus scribneri). We used soil inocula from within (resident) or below (novel) the plants' current elevation range and examined responses in plant biomass, plant traits, and fungal colonization of roots. Resident soil inocula from the species' home range decreased biomass to a greater extent than novel soil inocula. The depressed growth in resident soils suggested these soils harbor more carbon-demanding microbes, as plant biomass generally declined with greater fungal colonization of roots, especially in resident soil inocula. Although plant traits did not respond to the provenance of soil inocula, specific leaf area declined and root:shoot ratio increased when soil inocula were sterilized, indicating microbial mediation of plant trait expression. Contrary to current predictions, our findings suggest that if upwardly migrating microbes were to displace current soil microbes, alpine plants may benefit from this warming-induced microbial re-shuffling.
Plant colonization of moss-dominated soils in the alpine: Microbial and biogeochemical implications
A major impact of global climate change is the decline of mosses and lichens and their replacement by vascular plants. Although we assume this decline will greatly affect ecosystem functioning, particularly in alpine and arctic areas where cryptogams make a substantial amount of biomass, the effects of this change in vegetation on soil microbial communities remains unknown. We asked whether changes in bacterial community composition and enzyme ratios were consistent across two sites in moss versus vascular plant dominated areas. Using data from treeline and subnival ecosystems, we compared bacterial community composition, enzyme activity, and soil chemistry in moss dominated and vascular plant dominated plots of two unique alpine environments. Further, we used a time series to examine plots that actively transitioned from moss dominated to vascular plant dominated over a seven-year time period. Bacterial community composition in the soils under these two vegetation covers was significantly different in both environments and changed over time due to plant colonization. Microbial activity was limited by carbon and phosphorus in all plots and there were no differences in BG:AP enzyme ratios; however, there were significantly higher NAG:AP and BG:AP ratios in vascular plant plots at one site, suggesting the potential for shifts toward microbial N acquisition in vascular plant dominated areas in the alpine. As vascular plants replace mosses under warming conditions, bacterial community composition and nutrient availability shift in ways that may result in changes to biogeochemical cycling and biotic interactions in these vulnerable ecosystems.
Data from: Climate warming drives Himalayan alpine plant growth and recruitment dynamics
<ul> <li>Understanding how climate influences plant reproduction and growth at contrasting range limits is crucial for predicting how species' ranges may shift in response to ongoing climate change. Trees and shrubs have shown warming-induced increases in performance at upper elevation limits but reduced performance at lower distributional limits due to warming-driven drought limitation. Whether these differential responses are also valid for alpine forbs exposed to accelerated warming remains largely unknown.<b> </b> </li> <li>We examined climate signal recorded in annual growth and recruitment over the past sixty years in the alpine forb <i>Potentilla pamirica</i> in Western Himalayas, and tested whether the responses to recent climate warming differ between dry steppe, wet alpine and cold subnival zone within the species 5250-5900 m elevation range. We reconstructed recruitment and growth chronologies from 1019 individuals spanning 1-73 years, and more than 21,500 annual growth rings.</li> <li>We identified contrasting climatic controls of recruitment and growth at opposite elevation range margins, as well as contrasting demographic trends identified from age distributions. In lower-elevation steppes, recruitment increased with high late-winter snowfall and decreased with high summer temperatures, while growth increased with high summer precipitation. Conversely, warm winters and summers in higher-elevation alpine and subnival zones support growth and recruitment, while snowy winters reduce them, especially at their upper elevation limit. The age distribution revealed greater numbers of younger individuals, indicating healthy growing populations, in the alpine habitat, while evidence of ageing plant populations was observed in steppe and subnival zones.</li> <li>Accelerated warming since the 1990s reduced growth and recruitment in dry steppes while supporting plant performance in the alpine habitat. The recruitment in the subnival zone did not peak during the past warmest decade due to concomitant extreme snowfall events. </li> <li>Synthesis: Our results bring novel information on population-specific climate dependency of plant recruitment, growth, and population dynamics, suggesting a high vulnerability of high elevation Himalayan ecosystems to climate change. This is partly balanced by high species longevity and slow radial growth securing a long-term population persistence. Continuing trends of extreme snowfall events at higher elevations and droughts at lower elevations may lead to species range contraction.</li> </ul>
Data from: Ecosystem nitrogen retention is regulated by plant community trait interactions with nutrient status in an alpine meadow
1.Biotic nitrogen (N) retention is an important ecosystem function in the context of ongoing land use intensification, N deposition and global warming. However, a paucity of experimental evidence limits understanding of how different plant community components influence N retention in terrestrial ecosystems. 2.In this investigation we conducted a 15N labelling experiment to test how plant community properties, including plant species richness/diversity, dominance and functional traits, influence plant N uptake and retention under different nutrient availabilities. A three-year experiment examined the effects of adding N (10 g N m−2 year−1) and phosphorus (P) (5 g P m−2 year−1) to an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. 3.Results show that 15N retention increased with the addition of N and P; the addition of P produced the largest increase of 15N retention in plant and soil N pools. Changes in soil nutrient conditions also facilitated different plant community controls on ecosystem N retention. Ecosystem 15N retention was influenced by species richness and root biomass in the control plots; whereas the N addition treatment showed an important effect of community-weighted means (CWM) of specific leaf area (SLA), and plots with additional P recorded lower CWM of root nitrogen content (root N) and larger CWM root:shoot ratios (R/S) as important determinants. 4.Synthesis. Ecosystem N retention was influenced by conservative and exploitative plant species and/or their traits under N deficient and abundant conditions, respectively, whereas species richness and community plant biomass were most influential under control conditions. The discovery of an interaction between plant community traits and nutrient biogeochemistry as a mechanism for ecosystem N retention offers a means to predict how vegetation in alpine meadow ecosystems will respond to expected global change.
Data from: Functional traits, not productivity, predict openness to seedling recruitment in alpine plant communities under climatic warming
Understanding the degree to which plant communities are open to seedling recruitment is key to predicting how they will be impacted by climate change. We experimentally assessed whether communities assembled under colder climates were inherently more open to recruitment than warmer-climate communities, after controlling for differences in the current climate under which the communities were growing. We then tested whether variation in openness to recruitment could be explained by community biomass or by the plant functional traits of the community. The study was conducted in a climate grid of twelve grassland sites across southern Norway, differing systematically in temperature and precipitation. Along a 2000 mm precipitation gradient, we transplanted turfs with intact plant communities from alpine and sub-alpine sites into 2℃ warmer sites, and measured natural seedling emergence in these transplanted turfs vs. locally replanted control turfs at the transplant destination sites. Mixed effect models were used to assess the effect of origin (cold vs warm climate), biomass, and functional trait composition of the communities on seedling emergence. We further assessed variation in these effects across different climatic contexts (the temperature and precipitation gradients). Communities originating from colder climates were consistently more open to recruitment, with on average 44% more seedlings emerging, than the locally replanted control communities. The higher rates of seedling emergence in colder-climate communities were attributable to systematic differences in plant functional traits, but not in biomass. The colder-climate communities were composed of species with smaller leaves and lower maximum plant heights; traits that may make these communities less effective at excluding new recruits. These trait-related responses were not significant in the warmest sites and did not very across the precipitation gradient. Our results suggest that alpine species lack the competitive effect traits required to make their communities resistant to invasion by novel competitors under climate change.
Data from: Plant biodiversity responds more strongly to climate warming and anthropogenic activities than microbial biodiversity in the Qinghai-Tibetan alpine grasslands
<p>Biodiversity serves as the fundamental underpinning for ecosystem functions and services. As a result of human-induced global change, there is a growing awareness of the substantial alterations in terrestrial aboveground biodiversity, particularly within alpine regions. However, it remains uncertain whether belowground biodiversity will exhibit similar responses, both in terms of magnitude and manner, to anthropogenic global changes as aboveground biodiversity.</p> <p>Here, we conducted a meta-analysis to assess the impacts of warming, nutrient addition, and grazing on plant and soil microbial biodiversity in alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which are known to be climate-sensitive and vulnerable. The analysis included 819 experimental observations from 152 studies, focusing on species richness, Shannon diversity, and Pielou's evenness.</p> <p>We found that plant biodiversity exhibited greater sensitivity to climate warming and anthropogenic activities compared to soil microbial biodiversity. Specifically, plant richness and Shannon diversity were reduced by warming and nutrient addition, while plant evenness was increased by grazing. However, only microbial richness was increased by grazing and microbial evenness was increased by warming slightly.</p> <p>The responses of biodiversity to climate warming and anthropogenic activities were modulated by multiple factors. Specifically, the negative effects of warming on plant biodiversity were more pronounced in long-term experiments under warmer or drier environmental conditions. The negative effects of nitrogen addition on biodiversity were enhanced by the intensity and duration of nitrogen treatment. Appropriate intensity and frequency of grazing were beneficial to sustaining plant biodiversity. Soil microbial biodiversity was weakly regulated, where bacterial Shannon diversity was more sensitive to nutrient addition, while fungal species richness was sensitive to grazing.</p> <p><strong>Synthesis: </strong>Our findings reveal a mismatch between aboveground plant and belowground microbial biodiversity in response to climate warming and anthropogenic activities in alpine grasslands, with plant biodiversity being more sensitive. In the context of future global change, plant biodiversity may be at greater risk than soil microbial biodiversity. In addition, biodiversity responses of different experimental and environmental conditions should be distinguished, and more attention is needed on biodiversity conservation in alpine steppe, or areas with warmer and drier environmental conditions, high-intensity fertilization or heavy grazing. </p>
Data and code for "Shrubs inhibit plant diseases through reducing herbaceous biomass in alpine meadows"
<p>Supplementary Data and code for "Shrubs inhibit plant diseases through reducing herbaceous biomass in alpine meadows"</p>
Insect root feeders incur negative density-dependent damage across plant species in an alpine meadow
<p>Although herbivores are well known to incur positive density-dependent damage and mortality, thereby likely shaping plant community assembly, the response of belowground root feeders to changes in plant density has seldom been addressed. Locally rare plant species (with lower plant biomass per area) are often smaller with shallower roots than common species (with higher plant biomass per area) in competition-intensive grasslands. Likewise, root feeders are often distributed in the upper soil layers. We hypothesized therefore that root feeders would incur a negative density (biomass) dependent damage across plant species. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the diversity and abundance of plant and root feeder species in an alpine meadow, and determined the diet of the root feeders using metabarcoding. Across all species, root feeder load decreased with increasing aboveground plant biomass, root biomass, and total plant biomass per area, indicating negative density dependence of damage across plant species. Aboveground plant biomass per area increased with increasing individual plant biomass and root depth per area across species, suggesting that rare plant species were smaller in size and had shallower root systems compared to common plant species. Both root biomass per area and root feeder biomass per area decreased with soil depth, but the root feeder biomass decreased disproportionally faster compared to root biomass with increasing root depth. Root feeder load decreased with increasing root depth, but was not correlated with the feeding preference of root feeder species. Moreover, the prediction derived from a random process incorporating vertical distributions of root biomass and root feeder biomass significantly accounted for interspecific variation in root feeder load. In conclusion, the data indicate that root feeders incur negative density-dependent damage across plant species. On this basis, we suggest that manipulative experiments should be conducted to determine the effect of the negative density-dependent damage on plant community structure, and that different types of plant-animal interactions should be concurrently examined to fully understand the effect of plant density on overall herbivore damage across plant species.</p>
Effects of disturbance on plant regrowth along snow pack gradients in alpine habitats
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Human disturbance in alpine habitats is expected to increase, and improved knowledge of short-term recovery<span> </span>after disturbance events is necessary to interpret vegetation responses and formulate planning and mitigation efforts. The ability of a plant community to return to its original state after a disturbance (community resilience) depends on species composition and environmental conditions. The aim of this study is to analyze initial short-term effects of disturbance in alpine plant communities in contrasting climates (oceanic vs. continental; central Norway). We used a nested block-design to examine vegetative regrowth and seedling recruitment after experimental perturbation. Three plant community types along the snow pack gradient were exposed to (1) no disturbance, (2) clipping, and (3) clipping and uprooting. Slow vegetative regrowth and low seedling establishment rates were found in dry alpine ridges and late-melting oceanic snowbed communities. Leeside habitats with intermediate snow conditions were found more resilient. The difference was related to growth form and species diversity. Woody species, which dominated in ridges and oceanic snowbeds, showed the most negative response to disturbance. Species-rich plant communities dominated by graminoids and herbs showed higher rates of regrowth. Species richness seems to cause resilience to the plant communities through higher response diversity. Plant communities at the extreme ends of abiotic gradients, ridges and late-melting snowbeds, will be most sensitive to both disturbance and environmental change. In an up-scaled human-used landscape disturbance effects will be amplified and further limit recovery to a pre-disturbance state.</span></p>
Annotated compounds in extracts from alpine aromatic and medicinal plants grown in an aeroponics system
<p>The compounds were annotated by comparing the experimental HRMS/MS spectra of the samples with an <em>in silico</em> MS/MS spectral database of natural products.</p>
Historical context modifies plant diversity–community productivity relationships in alpine grassland
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>While most studies yield positive relationships between biodiversity (B) and ecosystem functioning (EF), awareness is growing that BEF relationships can vary with ecological context. The awareness has led to increased efforts to understand how contemporary environmental context modifies BEF relationships, but the role of historical context, and the mechanisms by which it may influence biodiversity effects, remains poorly understood.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>We examined how historical context alters plant diversity‒community productivity relationships via plant species interactions in alpine grassland. We also tested how historical context modifies interactions between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, which can potentially mediate the above processes.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>We studied biodiversity effects on plant community productivity at two grassland sites with different histories related to grazing intensity — heavy versus light livestock grazing — but similar current management. We assembled experimental communities of identical species composition with plants from each of the two sites in disturbed soil from a contemporary heavily grazed grassland, ranging in species richness from one to two, three and six species. Moreover, we carried out a mycorrhizal hyphae-exclusion experiment to test how plant interactions with AM fungi influence plant responses to historical context.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>We detected a significantly positive diversity‒productivity relationship that was driven by complementarity effects in communities composed of plants from the site without heavy-grazing history, but no such relationship in plant communities composed of plants from the site with heavy-grazing history</span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span>.</span></span><span> </span><span>Plants from the site with heavy-grazing history had increased competitive ability and increased yields in low-diversity communities but disrupted complementarity effects in high-diversity communities. </span><span>Moreover, plants of one species from the site with heavy-grazing history benefitted more from AM fungal communities than did plants from the site without such history.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>Synthesis: Using the same experimental design and species, communities assembled by plants from two sites with different historical contexts showed different plant diversity</span><span>‒community productivity relationships</span><span>. Our results suggest that historical context can alter plant diversity</span><span>‒community productivity relationships via plant species interactions and potentially </span><span>plant</span><span>‒soil interactions. Therefore, considering historical contexts of ecological communities is of importance for advancing our understanding of long-term impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on ecosystem functioning.</span></p>
High resolution ancient sedimentary DNA shows that alpine plant diversity is associated with human land use and climate change
<p>The European Alps are highly rich in species, but their future may be threatened by ongoing changes in human land use and climate. Here, we reconstructed vegetation, temperature, human impact and livestock over the past ~12,000 years from Lake Sulsseewli, based on sedimentary ancient plant and mammal DNA, pollen, spores, chironomids, and microcharcoal. We assembled a highly-complete local DNA reference library (PhyloAlps, 3,923 plant taxa), and used this to obtain an exceptionally rich <em>sed</em>aDNA record of 366 plant taxa. Vegetation mainly responded to climate during the early Holocene, while human activity had an additional influence on vegetation from 6 ka onwards. Land-use shifted from episodic grazing during the Neolithic and Bronze Age to agropastoralism in the Middle Ages. Associated human deforestation allowed the coexistence of plant species typically found at different elevational belts, leading to levels of plant richness that characterise the current high diversity of this region. Our findings indicate a positive association between low-intensity agropastoral activities and precipitation with the maintenance of the unique subalpine and alpine plant diversity of the European Alps.</p>
Effects of warming temperatures on germination responses and trade-offs between seed traits in an alpine plant
<p>1. Climate warming may affect multiple aspects of plant life history, including important factors such as germination responses and the key trade-off between offspring size and number. As a case study to address these concepts, we used an alpine plant (waxy bluebell, <em>Wahlenbergia</em> <em>ceracea</em>; Campanulaceae) that shows plasticity to warming in seed traits and in which seed dormancy status regulates germination. We chose an alpine species because alpine environments are ecosystems particularly under threat by climate change.</p> <p>2. We conducted germination assays under cool and warm temperatures using seeds produced by individuals that were grown under historical (cooler) and future (warmer) temperature scenarios. We assessed the presence of a seed size vs number trade-off, and then examined the effects of seed number and size on germination percentage, the fractions of dormant and viable seeds, and germination velocity. Further, we examined whether warming during parental growth and during germination affected these relationships.</p> <p>3. We found evidence for a seed size vs number trade-off only under historical parental temperatures. Indeed, under future growth temperatures, parental plants produced fewer and smaller seeds and there was no evidence of a trade-off. However, the reductions in both seed traits under warming did not affect germination, despite correlations of seed size and number with germination traits. Warming increased germination, particularly of larger seeds, but overall it resulted in more than fourfold reductions in parental fitness.</p> <p>4. Synthesis. Our study shows the importance of growth conditions when evaluating the seed size vs number trade-off. Stressful conditions, such as warmer temperatures, can restrain the ability of plants to reach optimal investment in reproduction, masking the trade-off. By analysing responses across the whole life cycle, we show here an overall detrimental effect of warming, highlighting the potential risk of climate change for <em>W</em>. <em>ceracea</em>, and, potentially, for alpine plant communities more widely. </p>
Data from: Climate refugia along Lake Superior's shores: Disjunct arctic-alpine plants rely on cool shoreline temperatures but are unlikely to persist under climate warming
<p>Climate refugia can serve as remnant habitat or stepping stones for species dispersal under climate warming. The largest freshwater lake by surface area, Lake Superior, USA and Canada, serves as a model system for understanding cooling-mediated local refugia, as its cool water temperatures and wave action have maintained shoreline habitats suitable for southern disjunct populations of arctic-alpine plants since deglaciation. Here we seek to explain spatial patterns and environmental drivers of arctic-alpine plant refugia along Lake Superior's shores, and assess future risk to refugia under moderate (+3.5 °C) and warmest (+5.7 °C) climate warming scenarios. First, we examined how the interactive effects of summer surface water temperatures and wind affected onshore temperatures, resulting in areas of cooler refugia. Second, we developed an ecological niche model for presence of disjunct arctic-alpine refugia (pooling 1253 occurrences from 58 species) along the lake's shoreline. Third, we fit species distribution models for 20 of the most common arctic-alpine disjunct species and predicted presence to identify refugia hotspots. Finally, we used the two climate warming scenarios to predict changes in presence of refugia and disjunct hotspots. Bedrock type, elevation above water, inland distance, July land surface temperature from MODIS/Terra satellite, and near-shore depth of water were the best predictors of disjunct occurrences. Overall, we predicted 2,236 km of the shoreline (51%) as disjunct refugia habitat for at least one species under current conditions, but this was reduced to 20% and 7% with moderate (894 km) and warmest (313 km) climate change projections.</p>
Data from: Plant diversity and density predict belowground diversity and function in an early successional alpine ecosystem
Despite decades of interest, few studies have provided evidence supporting theoretical expectations for coupled relationships between aboveground and belowground diversity and ecosystem functioning in non-manipulated naturalecosystems. We characterized plant species richness and density, soil bacterial, fungal and eukaryotic species richness and phylogenetic diversity (using 16S, ITS, and 18S gene sequencing), and ecosystem function (levels of soil C and N, and rates of microbial enzyme activities) along a natural gradient in plant richness and density in high-elevation, C-deficient soils to examine the coupling between above- and belowground systems. Overall, we observed a strong positive relationship between aboveground (plant richness and density) and belowground (bacteria, fungi, and non-fungal eukaryotes) richness. In addition to the correlations between plants and soil communities, C and N pools, and rates of enzyme activities increased as plant and soil communities became richer and more diverse. Our results suggest that the theoretically expected positive correlation between above- and belowground communities does exist in natural systems, but may be undetectable in late successional ecosystems due to the buildup of legacy organic matter that results in extremely complex belowground communities. In contrast, microbial communities in early successional systems, such as the system described here, are more directly dependent on contemporary inputs from plants and therefore are strongly correlated with plant diversity and density.
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