The relative role of climate and herbivory in driving treeline dynamics along a latitudinal gradient
Abstract Aim The treeline is an obvious ecotone between forest and tundra ecosystems. Climatic warming is expected to lead to the treeline advancing, although in many cases this has not been observed. This is most likely because other factors can also influence treeline dynamics, notably land use an...
Published in: | Journal of Vegetation Science |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Wiley
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12865 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fjvs.12865 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jvs.12865 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/jvs.12865 |
id |
crwiley:10.1111/jvs.12865 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crwiley:10.1111/jvs.12865 2024-09-15T18:39:52+00:00 The relative role of climate and herbivory in driving treeline dynamics along a latitudinal gradient Mienna, Ida Marielle Speed, James David Mervyn Klanderud, Kari Austrheim, Gunnar Næsset, Erik Bollandsås, Ole Martin Wildi, Otto Norges Forskningsråd 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12865 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fjvs.12865 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jvs.12865 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/jvs.12865 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Journal of Vegetation Science volume 31, issue 3, page 392-402 ISSN 1100-9233 1654-1103 journal-article 2020 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12865 2024-07-11T04:39:21Z Abstract Aim The treeline is an obvious ecotone between forest and tundra ecosystems. Climatic warming is expected to lead to the treeline advancing, although in many cases this has not been observed. This is most likely because other factors can also influence treeline dynamics, notably land use and herbivory in European treelines. In this study, the roles of climate and herbivory as determinants for change in stem number, growth and mortality responses of treeline ecotone trees were investigated. Location Thirty‐six sites along a 1,000 km latitudinal gradient in the Scandes Mountains in Norway (60–69° N). Methods We recorded changes in stem numbers and height, and mortality between 2008 and 2012. A partial least‐squares regression analysis (PLS) was carried out to find the relative importance of groups of variables representing climate, herbivory, site and tree properties for explaining the variation in these three response variables. We also fitted general additive models for each response with selected variables from the PLS analysis. Results We found an increase in number of stems and tree height for short and medium tall trees. The climatic variables explained the greatest proportion of the variation of the change in stem numbers, while tree height growth and mortality were best predicted by the growth stage of the tree and climate. Conclusions Our study shows that climate explains more of the variance in treeline performance than herbivory, tree properties or latitude. Relatively weak explanatory power of all variables suggests high context dependency of treeline dynamics between sites. It seems that at large scales, variables known to be important in regulating treeline dynamics within sites are poor predictors of treeline change in the short term. Article in Journal/Newspaper Tundra Wiley Online Library Journal of Vegetation Science 31 3 392 402 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
op_collection_id |
crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Aim The treeline is an obvious ecotone between forest and tundra ecosystems. Climatic warming is expected to lead to the treeline advancing, although in many cases this has not been observed. This is most likely because other factors can also influence treeline dynamics, notably land use and herbivory in European treelines. In this study, the roles of climate and herbivory as determinants for change in stem number, growth and mortality responses of treeline ecotone trees were investigated. Location Thirty‐six sites along a 1,000 km latitudinal gradient in the Scandes Mountains in Norway (60–69° N). Methods We recorded changes in stem numbers and height, and mortality between 2008 and 2012. A partial least‐squares regression analysis (PLS) was carried out to find the relative importance of groups of variables representing climate, herbivory, site and tree properties for explaining the variation in these three response variables. We also fitted general additive models for each response with selected variables from the PLS analysis. Results We found an increase in number of stems and tree height for short and medium tall trees. The climatic variables explained the greatest proportion of the variation of the change in stem numbers, while tree height growth and mortality were best predicted by the growth stage of the tree and climate. Conclusions Our study shows that climate explains more of the variance in treeline performance than herbivory, tree properties or latitude. Relatively weak explanatory power of all variables suggests high context dependency of treeline dynamics between sites. It seems that at large scales, variables known to be important in regulating treeline dynamics within sites are poor predictors of treeline change in the short term. |
author2 |
Wildi, Otto Norges Forskningsråd |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mienna, Ida Marielle Speed, James David Mervyn Klanderud, Kari Austrheim, Gunnar Næsset, Erik Bollandsås, Ole Martin |
spellingShingle |
Mienna, Ida Marielle Speed, James David Mervyn Klanderud, Kari Austrheim, Gunnar Næsset, Erik Bollandsås, Ole Martin The relative role of climate and herbivory in driving treeline dynamics along a latitudinal gradient |
author_facet |
Mienna, Ida Marielle Speed, James David Mervyn Klanderud, Kari Austrheim, Gunnar Næsset, Erik Bollandsås, Ole Martin |
author_sort |
Mienna, Ida Marielle |
title |
The relative role of climate and herbivory in driving treeline dynamics along a latitudinal gradient |
title_short |
The relative role of climate and herbivory in driving treeline dynamics along a latitudinal gradient |
title_full |
The relative role of climate and herbivory in driving treeline dynamics along a latitudinal gradient |
title_fullStr |
The relative role of climate and herbivory in driving treeline dynamics along a latitudinal gradient |
title_full_unstemmed |
The relative role of climate and herbivory in driving treeline dynamics along a latitudinal gradient |
title_sort |
relative role of climate and herbivory in driving treeline dynamics along a latitudinal gradient |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12865 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fjvs.12865 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jvs.12865 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/jvs.12865 |
genre |
Tundra |
genre_facet |
Tundra |
op_source |
Journal of Vegetation Science volume 31, issue 3, page 392-402 ISSN 1100-9233 1654-1103 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12865 |
container_title |
Journal of Vegetation Science |
container_volume |
31 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
392 |
op_container_end_page |
402 |
_version_ |
1810484215866720256 |