Assessing potential impacts of climatic change on subalpine forests on the eastern Tibetan Plateau

Forest gap models have been used widely in the study of forest dynamics, including predicting long-term succession patterns and assessing the potential impacts of climate change on forest structure and composition. However, little effort is devoted to predict forest dynamics in the high elevation ar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Climatic Change
Main Authors: Wang Xiaodan, Cheng Genwei, Zhong Xianghao
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2011
Subjects:
Gap Models
Species Composition
Mountain Forests
Stand Structure
European Alps
Patch Model
Vegetation
Treeline
Dynamics
China
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Physical Sciences
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Environmental Sciences
Tundra
Online Access:http://ir.imde.ac.cn/handle/131551/5488
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-010-0008-2
Description
Summary:Forest gap models have been used widely in the study of forest dynamics, including predicting long-term succession patterns and assessing the potential impacts of climate change on forest structure and composition. However, little effort is devoted to predict forest dynamics in the high elevation areas, although they have the sensitive response to global climate change. In the present study, based on a modified height-diameter function, we developed a new version (FAREAST-GFSM) of the forest patch model, FAREAST for simulating the changes of subalpine forests. The observed data from the Gongga Mt. Alpine Station were also used to test model precision. With the improved performance of FAREAST-GFSM, we explored the impact of three warming scenarios on subalpine forest on the eastern Tibetan plateau within a 100-year period. The study result indicates that the effects of climate change were evident on subalpine forests in the high elevation areas. The response of different species to the warming climate might eventually transform the subalpine Abies fabric forest into Betula utilis forest similar to that which is now widely distributed in the eastern Tibetan Plateau mountainous areas with the relatively lower elevation. Subalpine forests could move to higher and colder areas, which are currently tundra.

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