Shrub growth in the Alps diverges from air temperature since the 1990s
In the European Alps, air temperature has increased almost twice as much as the global average over the last century and, as a corollary, snow cover duration has decreased substantially. In the Arctic, dendroecological studies have evidenced that shrub growth is highly sensitive to temperature—this...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:053f3477102442aab326d37ff7bdf06a 2023-09-05T13:17:23+02:00 Shrub growth in the Alps diverges from air temperature since the 1990s Loïc Francon Christophe Corona Irène Till-Bottraud Philippe Choler Erwan Roussel Bradley Z Carlson Samuel Morin Brigitte Girard Markus Stoffel 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac0b67 https://doaj.org/article/053f3477102442aab326d37ff7bdf06a EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac0b67 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac0b67 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/053f3477102442aab326d37ff7bdf06a Environmental Research Letters, Vol 16, Iss 7, p 074026 (2021) dendroecology alpine Rhododendron ferrugineum climate change divergence topography Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac0b67 2023-08-13T00:37:14Z In the European Alps, air temperature has increased almost twice as much as the global average over the last century and, as a corollary, snow cover duration has decreased substantially. In the Arctic, dendroecological studies have evidenced that shrub growth is highly sensitive to temperature—this phenomenon has often been linked to shrub expansion and ecosystem greening. Yet, the impacts of climate change on mountain shrub radial growth have not been studied with a comparable level of detail so far. Moreover, dendroecological studies performed in mountain environments did not account for the potential modulation and/or buffering of global warming impacts by topography, despite its possible crucial role in complex alpine environments. To fill this gap, we analyzed a network of eight sites dominated by the dwarf shrub Rhododendron ferrugineum . The sites selected for analysis represent the diversity of continentality, elevation and slope aspect that can be found across the French Alps. We quantified annual radial increment growth for 119 individuals, assembled meteorological reanalyzes specifically accounting for topographic effects (elevation, slope and aspect) and assessed climate-growth relations using a mixed modeling approach. In agreement with a vast majority of dendroecological work conducted in alpine and arctic environments, we find that the number of growing degree days during the snow-free period snow-free growing degree days (SFGDDs) is a strong and consistent driver of R. ferrugineum growth across all sites since 1960 until the late 1980s. We also document a marked loss of sensitivity of radial growth to increasing SFGDD since the 1990s, with this decoupling being more pronounced at the driest sites. Our observations of the spatial and temporal variability of shrub sensitivity to limiting factors can be compared to the ‘divergence’ problem observed in tree-ring series from circumpolar and alpine regions and, accordingly, sheds light on possible future trajectories of alpine shrub growth in response ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Global warming Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Environmental Research Letters 16 7 074026 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
dendroecology alpine Rhododendron ferrugineum climate change divergence topography Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
dendroecology alpine Rhododendron ferrugineum climate change divergence topography Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Loïc Francon Christophe Corona Irène Till-Bottraud Philippe Choler Erwan Roussel Bradley Z Carlson Samuel Morin Brigitte Girard Markus Stoffel Shrub growth in the Alps diverges from air temperature since the 1990s |
topic_facet |
dendroecology alpine Rhododendron ferrugineum climate change divergence topography Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
In the European Alps, air temperature has increased almost twice as much as the global average over the last century and, as a corollary, snow cover duration has decreased substantially. In the Arctic, dendroecological studies have evidenced that shrub growth is highly sensitive to temperature—this phenomenon has often been linked to shrub expansion and ecosystem greening. Yet, the impacts of climate change on mountain shrub radial growth have not been studied with a comparable level of detail so far. Moreover, dendroecological studies performed in mountain environments did not account for the potential modulation and/or buffering of global warming impacts by topography, despite its possible crucial role in complex alpine environments. To fill this gap, we analyzed a network of eight sites dominated by the dwarf shrub Rhododendron ferrugineum . The sites selected for analysis represent the diversity of continentality, elevation and slope aspect that can be found across the French Alps. We quantified annual radial increment growth for 119 individuals, assembled meteorological reanalyzes specifically accounting for topographic effects (elevation, slope and aspect) and assessed climate-growth relations using a mixed modeling approach. In agreement with a vast majority of dendroecological work conducted in alpine and arctic environments, we find that the number of growing degree days during the snow-free period snow-free growing degree days (SFGDDs) is a strong and consistent driver of R. ferrugineum growth across all sites since 1960 until the late 1980s. We also document a marked loss of sensitivity of radial growth to increasing SFGDD since the 1990s, with this decoupling being more pronounced at the driest sites. Our observations of the spatial and temporal variability of shrub sensitivity to limiting factors can be compared to the ‘divergence’ problem observed in tree-ring series from circumpolar and alpine regions and, accordingly, sheds light on possible future trajectories of alpine shrub growth in response ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Loïc Francon Christophe Corona Irène Till-Bottraud Philippe Choler Erwan Roussel Bradley Z Carlson Samuel Morin Brigitte Girard Markus Stoffel |
author_facet |
Loïc Francon Christophe Corona Irène Till-Bottraud Philippe Choler Erwan Roussel Bradley Z Carlson Samuel Morin Brigitte Girard Markus Stoffel |
author_sort |
Loïc Francon |
title |
Shrub growth in the Alps diverges from air temperature since the 1990s |
title_short |
Shrub growth in the Alps diverges from air temperature since the 1990s |
title_full |
Shrub growth in the Alps diverges from air temperature since the 1990s |
title_fullStr |
Shrub growth in the Alps diverges from air temperature since the 1990s |
title_full_unstemmed |
Shrub growth in the Alps diverges from air temperature since the 1990s |
title_sort |
shrub growth in the alps diverges from air temperature since the 1990s |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac0b67 https://doaj.org/article/053f3477102442aab326d37ff7bdf06a |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Global warming |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Global warming |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 16, Iss 7, p 074026 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac0b67 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac0b67 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/053f3477102442aab326d37ff7bdf06a |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac0b67 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
074026 |
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1776198572618809344 |