Global distribution and bioclimatic characterization of alpine biomes
Although there is a general consensus on the distribution and ecological features of terrestrial biomes, the allocation of alpine ecosystems in the global biogeographic system is still unclear. Here, we delineate a global map of alpine areas above the treeline by modelling regional treeline elevatio...
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crwiley:10.1111/ecog.05012 2024-06-23T07:46:43+00:00 Global distribution and bioclimatic characterization of alpine biomes Testolin, Riccardo Attorre, Fabio Jiménez‐Alfaro, Borja 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05012 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fecog.05012 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecog.05012 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/ecog.05012 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Ecography volume 43, issue 6, page 779-788 ISSN 0906-7590 1600-0587 journal-article 2020 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05012 2024-06-04T06:48:34Z Although there is a general consensus on the distribution and ecological features of terrestrial biomes, the allocation of alpine ecosystems in the global biogeographic system is still unclear. Here, we delineate a global map of alpine areas above the treeline by modelling regional treeline elevation at 30 m resolution, using global forest cover data and quantile regression. We then used global datasets to 1) assess the climatic characteristics of alpine ecosystems using principal component analysis, 2) define bioclimatic groups by an optimized cluster analysis and 3) evaluate patterns of primary productivity based on the normalized difference vegetation index. As defined here, alpine biomes cover 3.56 Mkm 2 or 2.64% of land outside Antarctica. Despite temperature differences across latitude, these ecosystems converge below a sharp threshold of 5.9°C and towards the colder end of the global climatic space. Below that temperature threshold, alpine ecosystems are influenced by a latitudinal gradient of mean annual temperature and they are climatically differentiated by seasonality and continentality. This gradient delineates a climatic envelope of global alpine biomes around temperate, boreal and tundra biomes as defined in Whittaker's scheme. Although alpine biomes are similarly dominated by poorly vegetated areas, world ecoregions show strong differences in the productivity of their alpine belt irrespectively of major climate zones. These results suggest that vegetation structure and function of alpine ecosystems are driven by regional and local contingencies in addition to macroclimatic factors. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Tundra Wiley Online Library Ecography 43 6 779 788 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Although there is a general consensus on the distribution and ecological features of terrestrial biomes, the allocation of alpine ecosystems in the global biogeographic system is still unclear. Here, we delineate a global map of alpine areas above the treeline by modelling regional treeline elevation at 30 m resolution, using global forest cover data and quantile regression. We then used global datasets to 1) assess the climatic characteristics of alpine ecosystems using principal component analysis, 2) define bioclimatic groups by an optimized cluster analysis and 3) evaluate patterns of primary productivity based on the normalized difference vegetation index. As defined here, alpine biomes cover 3.56 Mkm 2 or 2.64% of land outside Antarctica. Despite temperature differences across latitude, these ecosystems converge below a sharp threshold of 5.9°C and towards the colder end of the global climatic space. Below that temperature threshold, alpine ecosystems are influenced by a latitudinal gradient of mean annual temperature and they are climatically differentiated by seasonality and continentality. This gradient delineates a climatic envelope of global alpine biomes around temperate, boreal and tundra biomes as defined in Whittaker's scheme. Although alpine biomes are similarly dominated by poorly vegetated areas, world ecoregions show strong differences in the productivity of their alpine belt irrespectively of major climate zones. These results suggest that vegetation structure and function of alpine ecosystems are driven by regional and local contingencies in addition to macroclimatic factors. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Testolin, Riccardo Attorre, Fabio Jiménez‐Alfaro, Borja |
spellingShingle |
Testolin, Riccardo Attorre, Fabio Jiménez‐Alfaro, Borja Global distribution and bioclimatic characterization of alpine biomes |
author_facet |
Testolin, Riccardo Attorre, Fabio Jiménez‐Alfaro, Borja |
author_sort |
Testolin, Riccardo |
title |
Global distribution and bioclimatic characterization of alpine biomes |
title_short |
Global distribution and bioclimatic characterization of alpine biomes |
title_full |
Global distribution and bioclimatic characterization of alpine biomes |
title_fullStr |
Global distribution and bioclimatic characterization of alpine biomes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Global distribution and bioclimatic characterization of alpine biomes |
title_sort |
global distribution and bioclimatic characterization of alpine biomes |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05012 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fecog.05012 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/ecog.05012 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/ecog.05012 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Tundra |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Tundra |
op_source |
Ecography volume 43, issue 6, page 779-788 ISSN 0906-7590 1600-0587 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05012 |
container_title |
Ecography |
container_volume |
43 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
779 |
op_container_end_page |
788 |
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1802647687393181696 |