Effects of ice and floods on vegetation in streams in cold regions: implications for climate change
Abstract Riparian zones support some of the most dynamic and species‐rich plant communities in cold regions. A common conception among plant ecologists is that flooding during the season when plants are dormant generally has little effect on the survival and production of riparian vegetation. We sho...
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crwiley:10.1002/ece3.1283 2024-09-15T18:26:12+00:00 Effects of ice and floods on vegetation in streams in cold regions: implications for climate change Lind, Lovisa Nilsson, Christer Weber, Christine Swedish Research Council Formas Gunnar and Ruth Björkman’s Foundation for Botanical Research in Norrland 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1283 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fece3.1283 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.1283 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Ecology and Evolution volume 4, issue 21, page 4173-4184 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 journal-article 2014 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1283 2024-06-25T04:16:34Z Abstract Riparian zones support some of the most dynamic and species‐rich plant communities in cold regions. A common conception among plant ecologists is that flooding during the season when plants are dormant generally has little effect on the survival and production of riparian vegetation. We show that winter floods may also be of fundamental importance for the composition of riverine vegetation. We investigated the effects of ice formation on riparian and in‐stream vegetation in northern Sweden using a combination of experiments and observations in 25 reaches, spanning a gradient from ice‐free to ice‐rich reaches. The ice‐rich reaches were characterized by high production of frazil and anchor ice. In a couple of experiments, we exposed riparian vegetation to experimentally induced winter flooding, which reduced the dominant dwarf‐shrub cover and led to colonization of a species‐rich forb‐dominated vegetation. In another experiment, natural winter floods caused by anchor‐ice formation removed plant mimics both in the in‐stream and in the riparian zone, further supporting the result that anchor ice maintains dynamic plant communities. With a warmer winter climate, ice‐induced winter floods may first increase in frequency because of more frequent shifts between freezing and thawing during winter, but further warming and shortening of the winter might make them less common than today. If ice‐induced winter floods become reduced in number because of a warming climate, an important disturbance agent for riparian and in‐stream vegetation will be removed, leading to reduced species richness in streams and rivers in cold regions. Given that such regions are expected to have more plant species in the future because of immigration from the south, the distribution of species richness among habitats can be expected to show novel patterns. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Sweden Wiley Online Library Ecology and Evolution 4 21 4173 4184 |
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English |
description |
Abstract Riparian zones support some of the most dynamic and species‐rich plant communities in cold regions. A common conception among plant ecologists is that flooding during the season when plants are dormant generally has little effect on the survival and production of riparian vegetation. We show that winter floods may also be of fundamental importance for the composition of riverine vegetation. We investigated the effects of ice formation on riparian and in‐stream vegetation in northern Sweden using a combination of experiments and observations in 25 reaches, spanning a gradient from ice‐free to ice‐rich reaches. The ice‐rich reaches were characterized by high production of frazil and anchor ice. In a couple of experiments, we exposed riparian vegetation to experimentally induced winter flooding, which reduced the dominant dwarf‐shrub cover and led to colonization of a species‐rich forb‐dominated vegetation. In another experiment, natural winter floods caused by anchor‐ice formation removed plant mimics both in the in‐stream and in the riparian zone, further supporting the result that anchor ice maintains dynamic plant communities. With a warmer winter climate, ice‐induced winter floods may first increase in frequency because of more frequent shifts between freezing and thawing during winter, but further warming and shortening of the winter might make them less common than today. If ice‐induced winter floods become reduced in number because of a warming climate, an important disturbance agent for riparian and in‐stream vegetation will be removed, leading to reduced species richness in streams and rivers in cold regions. Given that such regions are expected to have more plant species in the future because of immigration from the south, the distribution of species richness among habitats can be expected to show novel patterns. |
author2 |
Swedish Research Council Formas Gunnar and Ruth Björkman’s Foundation for Botanical Research in Norrland |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lind, Lovisa Nilsson, Christer Weber, Christine |
spellingShingle |
Lind, Lovisa Nilsson, Christer Weber, Christine Effects of ice and floods on vegetation in streams in cold regions: implications for climate change |
author_facet |
Lind, Lovisa Nilsson, Christer Weber, Christine |
author_sort |
Lind, Lovisa |
title |
Effects of ice and floods on vegetation in streams in cold regions: implications for climate change |
title_short |
Effects of ice and floods on vegetation in streams in cold regions: implications for climate change |
title_full |
Effects of ice and floods on vegetation in streams in cold regions: implications for climate change |
title_fullStr |
Effects of ice and floods on vegetation in streams in cold regions: implications for climate change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects of ice and floods on vegetation in streams in cold regions: implications for climate change |
title_sort |
effects of ice and floods on vegetation in streams in cold regions: implications for climate change |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1283 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fece3.1283 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.1283 |
genre |
Northern Sweden |
genre_facet |
Northern Sweden |
op_source |
Ecology and Evolution volume 4, issue 21, page 4173-4184 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1283 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
21 |
container_start_page |
4173 |
op_container_end_page |
4184 |
_version_ |
1810466643446333440 |