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28 results for “alpine treeline”
Crossing Treeline: Bacterioplankton community composition in alpine and subalpine lakes of the Rocky Mountain southern ecoregion and associated physical and chemical characteristics
This dataset includes lake water samples collected in the summer of 2016 from 16 different mountain lakes in the Rocky mountains in both Rocky Mountain National Park and the Snowy Range of southern Wyoming. Each lake was sampled twice: once in the early summer when hydrologic connections with the surrounding terrestrial environment were high and again in the late summer when hydrologic connections were low. The main goal of the study was to compare communities of bacterioplankton in alpine and subalpine lakes to determine if communities differed across treeline as soil microbes in the surrounding terrestrial environment were. To do so, we collected water samples from the deepest point of each lake, mixed it with a surface water sample and characterized bacterioplankton communities with 16S sequencing technology. Additionally, we wanted to identify abiotic factors that may correlate with community dissimilarity and characterized a suite of chemical attributes for each lake. Lake characteristics reported included surface temperature, soluble reactive phosphorous (SRP), ammonia (NH3+), pH, total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), total dissolved phosphorus (TDP), and total dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and chlorophyll a (chl-a).
Global Alpine Treeline Elevational Transects
<p>Elevational transects within alpine treeline ecotones worldwide.</p>
Soil inorganic and organic property data for subalpine forest, treeline, and alpine zone, 1999.
This study was initiated to examine the nitrogen content of three montane soils: subalpine, treeline and alpine; and to determine if the differences in soil nitrogen content were attributed to plant community and elevation. Soil organic matter, soil carbon, bulk density, pH and soil moisture were also measured for each site. Soil samples were collected from 64 total plots [22 subalpine,15 treeline and 27 alpine sites]. The subalpine site plots included aspen, fir, lodgepole, spruce and meadow vegetation cover. The treeline site plots included fir, spruce and meadow vegetation cover. The alpine site plots included dry meadow and mesic meadow fertilization (control, N, P, NP) plots. Soil cores were removed with 3.5-cm interior diameter PVC pipe that was driven into the soil by use of a rubber mallet. The minimum depth of individual cores was 10 cm. Cores were taken at each site three times over the period between 29 June 1999 and 29 July 1999.
Data from: Density-dependent species interactions modulate alpine treeline shifts
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Data from: The importance of biotic filtering on boreal conifer recruitment at alpine treeline
<p>Treeline, the ecotone where forest transitions to alpine or tundra ecosystems, is considered the thermal limit to tree growth and survival. Despite temperature increases across mountainous areas and high latitudes globally, there has been no ubiquitous change in treeline position. The process of range expansion must initially depend on increased recruitment at, or beyond current range limits and recruitment limitations have been hypothesized as a mechanism for the variable response of treeline position to climate warming.<b> </b>We conducted a unique series of observational and experimental studies to quantify early-life stage constraints, from seed production to seedling establishment, on black spruce (<i>Picea mariana</i>) and tamarack (<i>Larix laricina</i>) recruitment at a model alpine treeline in Newfoundland, Canada.<b> </b>We found recruitment at treeline to be simultaneously seed and establishment limited. The treeline population produced fewer seeds than the forest population and black spruce seeds produced at treeline were less viable. Tamarack was more seed limited than black spruce where seed viability was low regardless of altitudinal position.<b> </b>Post-dispersal seed predation greatly constrained recruitment across the altitudinal gradient; however, black spruce seeds experienced the lowest levels of invertebrate seed predation on the lichen mat at treeline. If seeds were not consumed, individuals at treeline were establishment limited where germination and seedling establishment was both less abundant and delayed on lichen substrate. Our study highlights the need for multiple factors to align temporally for significant recruitment at treeline to occur.</p>
Temperature sensitivity of tree recruitment at alpine treelines increases along latitudinal gradients
<p>Alpine treeline is highly sensitive to temperature change, and treelines worldwide have been rapidly responding to temperature warming by increasing tree density. However, often inconsistent or even conflicting results regarding the response of tree recruitment to temperature change across regions, still challenge our profound comprehension of warming-induced treeline dynamics. Here, we identified the temperature sensitivity of tree recruitment within alpine treeline ecotones (i.e., the strength of the relationship between tree recruitment and temperature change), and tested whether and how the temperature sensitivity changed along latitudinal gradients by examining 124 alpine treelines across North America and Asia. Our analyses demonstrated that temperature changes could significantly influence tree recruitment at treeline ecotones and the sensitivity of tree recruitment to temperature change was significantly and positively associated with latitude, showing that tree recruitment was more sensitive to temperature change at high latitudes than at low latitudes. Our findings highlighted the heterogeneous responses of tree recruitment at alpine treelines to temperature changes across latitudinal gradients, which should be incorporated into assessment models to improve future projections of global warming impacts across alpine ecosystems.</p>
Data from: The importance of biotic filtering on boreal conifer recruitment at alpine treeline
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Data from: Effects of advancing treelines and melting glaciers on alpine lake ecosystems: A mesocosm experiment
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Disentangling seed availability and establishment filters at alpine treelines through a decade-long field manipulation
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Temperature sensitivity of tree recruitment at alpine treelines increases along latitudinal gradients
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Data from: Spatial dynamics of alpine treelines under global warming: what explains the mismatch between tree densification and elevational upward shifts at the treeline ecotone?
<p><b>Aim</b></p> <p>Most studies focusing on the alpine treeline responses to climate warming have used either the tree densification within the ecotone or its elevational upshift as indicators. However, it is acknowledged that the relation between densification and upshift is spatially heterogeneous, making inferences and comparability among studies tricky. The lack of consistent empirical evidence on this potential mismatch and its drivers leads us to focus on this issue in this study. The aim was twofold: (i) to quantify the mismatch between the two processes at a regional scale, and (ii) to identify its site-specific determinants.</p> <p><b>Location</b></p> <p>French eastern Pyrenees</p> <p><b>Time period</b></p> <p>1953-2015</p> <p><b>Major taxa studied </b></p> <p><i>Pinus</i><i> uncinata </i>(Ramond ex DC)</p> <p><b>Methods</b></p> <p>An object-oriented supervised classification procedure was performed on historical (1953) and current (2015) air-photos. Based on the resulting rasters, densification of the treeline ecotone and upward shift of the treeline were estimated at the two dates in 191 sites, then standardized, before finally being compared. Three site clusters were derived (no mismatch, densification prevalence, upshift prevalence). After having characterized their spatial patterns through join count statistics, a multinomial logistic regression model was computed to identify the correlates of these clusters among a list of site variables.</p> <p><b>Results</b></p> <p>No spatial pattern among the categories of responses emerges at a local scale, but buffers with no mismatch tend to aggregate at a larger scale. Changes in minimum air temperatures, site elevation, mean slope, slope morphometry and lithology appear as significant drivers of the observed mismatch, implying that the relation between densification and elevational upshift is context-specific.</p> <p><b>Main conclusions</b></p> <p><a name="_Hlk17817327">Our findings suggest that both </a><a name="_Hlk17816517">densification and upshift </a>should be considered in quantitative analyses of treeline spatial dynamics, since these two ecological processes are not controlled by the same drivers.</p>
Data from: Competitor or facilitator? The ambiguous role of alpine grassland for the early establishment of tree seedlings at treeline
Alpine treelines are expected to move upslope with a warming climate. However, so far treelines have responded inconsistently and future shifts remain difficult to predict since many factors unrelated to temperature, such as biotic interactions, affect responses at the local scale. Especially during the earliest regeneration stages, trees can be strongly influenced by alpine vegetation via both competition and facilitation. We aimed to understand the relative importance of these two types of interaction in different vegetation structures for treeline regeneration dynamics. Effects of herbaceous alpine vegetation on seedling emergence and first-year performance were studied in a field experiment in the French Alps (2100 m a.s.l.) with five important European treeline tree species: Larix decidua, Picea abies, Pinus cembra, Pinus uncinata and Sorbus aucuparia. Total emergence and locally-germinated seedling survival were not affected, but for seedlings planted at two months of age, negative vegetation impacts dominated for all response parameters: first-year survival, growth and carbohydrate accumulation. However, in the winter half-year, evergreen tree seedlings increased carbohydrate reserves under the protection of senescent herbs. Also, responses of locally-germinated seedlings suggest facilitative vegetation effects in the first two months after emergence. Thus, the interaction switched between competition and facilitation according to ontogenetic stage and seasons. Still, the net outcome after one year was negative, but species differed in their susceptibilities. Because initial establishment is the first bottleneck determining whether treelines remain stable or move upslope, understanding establishment, including site-, life-stage and species-specific processes, is essential for understanding observed treeline spatial patterns and dynamics. When developing predictive models of treeline dynamics, all these 'local' aspects should be incorporated in addition to more global drivers like changes in temperature.
Data from: Ecological gradients drive insect wing loss and speciation: the role of the alpine treeline
Alpine ecosystems are frequently characterised by an abundance of wing-reduced insect species, but the drivers of this biodiversity remain poorly understood. Insect wing reduction in these environments has variously been attributed to altitude, temperature, isolation, habitat stability, or decreased habitat size. We used fine-scale ecotypic and genomic analyses, along with broad-scale distributional analyses of ecotypes, to unravel the ecological drivers of wing reduction in the wing-dimorphic stonefly Zelandoperla fenestrata complex. Altitudinal transects within populations revealed dramatic wing reduction over very fine spatial scales, tightly linked to the alpine treeline. Broad biogeographic analyses confirm that the treeline has a much stronger effect on these ecotype distributions than altitude per se. Molecular analyses revealed parallel genomic divergence between vestigial-winged (high altitude) and full-winged (low altitude) ecotypes across distinct streams. These data thus highlight the role of the alpine treeline as a key driver of rapid speciation, providing a new model for ecological diversification along exposure gradients
Data from: Global drivers of tree seedling establishment at alpine treelines in a changing climate
Alpine and Arctic treeline expansion depends on establishment of tree seedlings beyond the current treeline, which is expected to occur with climate warming. However, treelines often fail to respond to higher temperatures, and it is therefore likely that other environmental factors are important for seedling establishment. We aimed to analyse our current understanding of how temperature and a range of other environmental drivers affect tree seedling establishment at the alpine and Arctic treelines worldwide, and to assess the relative importance of temperature compared with other factors and how they interact. We collected 366 observations from 76 experimental and observational papers for a qualitative analysis of the role of a wide range of environmental factors on tree seed germination, tree seedling growth, survival and natural occurrence. For a subset of these studies, where the experimental design allowed, we conducted formal meta-analyses to reveal if there were global drivers for different seedling life traits. The analyses showed that a wide range of abiotic and biotic factors affected tree seedling establishment besides from temperature, including water, snow, nutrients, light, and surrounding vegetation. The meta-analyses showed that different seedling life stages do not respond similarly to environmental factors. For example, temperature had positive effects on growth, while tree seedling survival and germination showed mixed responses to warming. Further, warming was as often as not the strongest factor controlling tree seedling establishment, when compared to with one of five other environmental factors. Moreover, warming effects often depended on other factors such as moisture or the presence of surrounding vegetation. Our results suggests that population dynamics of trees at the alpine and Arctic treeline are responsive to environmental changes and show that there is a clear need for multi-factorial studies if we want to fully understand and predict the interplay between warming and other environmental factors and their effect on tree seedling establishment across current treelines.
Data from: Impact of environmental conditions on wood anatomical traits of green alder (Alnus alnobetula) at the alpine treeline
<p><strong>The data file</strong> (<em>Alnus alnobetula</em>_Wood anatomy.xlsx) contains all raw data, which have been used to create Figures 3-7 in the article.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Data are documented in the following article</strong>:</p> <p>Gruber A, G Wieser, M Fink, W Oberhuber (2024) Impact of environmental conditions on wood anatomical traits of green alder (<em>Alnus alnobetula</em>) at the alpine treeline.<strong> Forests, 15, 24; doi:10.3390/f15010024 <br></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Summary</strong></p> <p>Due to land use change, green alder (<em>Alnus alnobetula</em>), formerly restricted to moist slopes, is now expanding to drier south-facing sites at the alpine treeline. To evaluate wood anatomical adaptations, we analyzed vessel characteristics (mean vessel area, MVA; vessel density, VD; and theoretic conductive area, TCA) and axial parenchyma abundance, as well as their distribution in the annual ring at a moist north-facing and a dry south-facing site at the alpine treeline (2150 m asl) on Mt. Patscherkofel (Central European Alps, Austria). Results revealed that lower soil water availability and enhanced evaporative demand did not affect MVA, while VD and TCA were significantly reduced at the dry south-facing site. This suggests that in <em>A. alnobetula</em>, vessel size is a static trait whereas vessel number responds plastic. Harsh environmental conditions at the distributional limit of <em>A. alnobetula</em> led to a near semi-ring-porous distribution of vessels and an accumulation of parenchyma in the late growing season. We conclude that in a warmer and drier climate, physiological stress may set limits to the distribution of <em>A. alnobetula</em> at drought-prone sites at the alpine treeline.</p>
Asymmetric effects of daytime and nighttime warming on alpine treeline recruitment
<p><span>Trees at their upper range limits are highly sensitive to climate change, and thus alpine treelines worldwide have changed their recruitment patterns in response to climate warming. However, previous studies focused only on daily mean temperature, neglecting the asymmetric influences of daytime and nighttime warming on recruitments in alpine treelines. Here, based on the compiled dataset of tree recruitment series from 172 alpine treelines across the Northern Hemisphere, we quantified and compared the different effects of daytime and nighttime warming on treeline recruitment using four indices of temperature sensitivity, and assessed the responses of treeline recruitment to warming-induced drought stress. Our analyses demonstrated that even in different environmental regions, both daytime and nighttime warming could significantly promote treeline recruitment, however, treeline recruitment was much more sensitive to nighttime warming than to daytime warming, which could be attributable to the presence of drought stress. The increasing drought stress primarily driven by daytime warming rather than by nighttime warming would likely constrain the responses of treeline recruitment to daytime warming. Our findings provided compelling evidence that nighttime warming rather than daytime warming could play a primary role in promoting the recruitment in alpine treelines, which was related to the daytime warming-induced drought stress. Thus, daytime and nighttime warming should be considered separately </span><span>to improve future projections of global change impacts across alpine ecosystems.</span></p>
Data from: Global drivers of tree seedling establishment at alpine treelines in a changing climate
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Data from: Ecological gradients drive insect wing loss and speciation: the role of the alpine treeline
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Competitor or facilitator? The ambiguous role of alpine grassland for the early establishment of tree seedlings at treeline
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Spatial dynamics of alpine treelines under global warming: what explains the mismatch between tree densification and elevational upward shifts at the treeline ecotone?
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
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