Contrasting effects of winter and summer climate on alpine timberline evolution in monsoon-dominated East Asia

Alpine timberline is particularly sensitive to global climate change, with the danger of losing essential ecosystem services in high elevational regions. Its evolution is generally linked to annual average thermal regimes, and is regarded as an indicator of climate warming. However, the effect of un...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Quaternary Science Reviews
Main Authors: Cheng, Ying, Liu, Hongyan, Wang, Hongya, Piao, Shilong, Yin, Yi, Ciais, Philippe, Wu, Xiuchen, Luo, Yao, Zhang, Caina, Song, Yaqiong, Gao, Yishen, Qiu, Anan
Other Authors: Liu, HY; Wang, HY (reprint author), Peking Univ, Coll Urban & Environm Sci, MOE Lab Earth Surface Proc, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China., Peking Univ, Coll Urban & Environm Sci, MOE Lab Earth Surface Proc, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China., Peking Univ, Sinofrench Inst Earth Syst Sci, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China., Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Tibetan Plateau Res, Beijing 100085, Peoples R China., CEA, UVSQ, CNRA, CE Orme Merisiers,Lab Sci Climat & Environm, F-91191 Gif Sur Yvette, France., Beijing Normal Univ, Coll Resources Sci & Technol, Beijing 100875, Peoples R China.
Format: Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS 2017
Subjects:
Alpine timberline
Timberline dynamics
Climate change
East Asian monsoon
GROWING-SEASON
SWISS ALPS
ENVIRONMENTAL-CHANGES
ARCTIC OSCILLATION
TREE LINE
M A.S.L
CHINA
VEGETATION
DYNAMICS
TEMPERATURE
Arctic
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/471916
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.06.007
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Summary:Alpine timberline is particularly sensitive to global climate change, with the danger of losing essential ecosystem services in high elevational regions. Its evolution is generally linked to annual average thermal regimes, and is regarded as an indicator of climate warming. However, the effect of uneven seasonal climate change stressed by the Hijioka et al. (2014) on alpine timberline dynamics in terms of both position migration and species composition remains unclear. Here, we documented approximately 6000 years of postglacial alpine timberline evolution on Mt. Tabai in the monsoon-dominated East Asian subtropical temperate transition. We analyzed three high-resolution lacustrine sediment sequences located below, within, and above the current alpine timberline, an ecotone between the forest line and treeline, respectively. The timberline position appears to have varied coincidently with the temperature effect of cold East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM), implying that enhanced EAWM shortened the duration of the growing season and reduced forest survival at the alpine timberline. Unlike position migration, however, timberline species composition depends on summer precipitation. We found that drought-tolerant herb and shrub species were much more sensitive to variations in the water-bearing East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) than mesophytic trees at the alpine timberline. Our results suggest that prediction of future timberline dynamics should consider uneven seasonal climate changes. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. NSF of China [41171160, 41325002] SCI(E) ARTICLE 278-287 169

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