Data from: Wind exposure and light exposure, more than elevation-related temperature, limit tree line seedling abundance on three continents ...

• Main Authors: McIntire, Eliot J. B., Piper, Frida I., Fajardo, Alex
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2017
• Subjects: Nothofagus betuloides; Pinus cembra; Nothofagus antarctica; hierarchical modeling; Larix decidua; plant-climate interactions; stress gradient hypothesis; Pinus albicaulis; alpine treelines; Nothofagus pumilio; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.j0v43; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.j0v43

The transition from seedlings into trees at alpine treelines is a temperature-limited process that ultimately sets the treeline elevation at a global scale. As such, treelines may be key bioassays of global warming effects on species distributions. For global warming to promote upward treeline migration, as predicted, seedlings must be available. We examined, for the first time at a global scale, elevational patterns and drivers of seedling availability at treelines. Working at 10 sites across five mountain regions, (dry Andes, humid Andes, Patagonian Andes, Swiss Alps, and US Rocky Mountains) with different treeline forms (abrupt and diffuse) and dominated by different tree species (broadleaves and conifers), we answered the following question: how is seedling abundance affected by elevation (as a coarse grain-surrogate of temperature), light exposure (openness immediately above plots) or wind exposure (an index for openness in the horizontal direction), or combinations thereof and, what is the relative ... : RegenerationFinalData file with seedling abundance records arranged by site, elevation and X-Y coordinates. ...