Climate change and the northern Russian treeline zone
The Russian treeline is a dynamic ecotone typified by steep gradients in summer temperature and regionally variable gradients in albedo and heat flux. The location of the treeline is largely controlled by summer temperatures and growing season length. Temperatures have responded strongly to twentiet...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:2606780 2023-05-15T13:11:48+02:00 Climate change and the northern Russian treeline zone MacDonald, G.M Kremenetski, K.V Beilman, D.W 2007-11-15 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2606780 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18006415 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2200 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2606780 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18006415 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2200 © 2007 The Royal Society Research Article Text 2007 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2200 2013-09-02T09:00:49Z The Russian treeline is a dynamic ecotone typified by steep gradients in summer temperature and regionally variable gradients in albedo and heat flux. The location of the treeline is largely controlled by summer temperatures and growing season length. Temperatures have responded strongly to twentieth-century global warming and will display a magnified response to future warming. Dendroecological studies indicate enhanced conifer recruitment during the twentieth century. However, conifers have not yet recolonized many areas where trees were present during the Medieval Warm period (ca AD 800–1300) or the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM; ca 10 000–3000 years ago). Reconstruction of tree distributions during the HTM suggests that the future position of the treeline due to global warming may approximate its former Holocene maximum position. An increased dominance of evergreen tree species in the northern Siberian forests may be an important difference between past and future conditions. Based on the slow rates of treeline expansion observed during the twentieth century, the presence of steep climatic gradients associated with the current Arctic coastline and the prevalence of organic soils, it is possible that rates of treeline expansion will be regionally variable and transient forest communities with species abundances different from today's may develop. Text albedo Arctic Climate change Global warming PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 363 1501 2283 2299 |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
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Research Article |
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Research Article MacDonald, G.M Kremenetski, K.V Beilman, D.W Climate change and the northern Russian treeline zone |
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Research Article |
description |
The Russian treeline is a dynamic ecotone typified by steep gradients in summer temperature and regionally variable gradients in albedo and heat flux. The location of the treeline is largely controlled by summer temperatures and growing season length. Temperatures have responded strongly to twentieth-century global warming and will display a magnified response to future warming. Dendroecological studies indicate enhanced conifer recruitment during the twentieth century. However, conifers have not yet recolonized many areas where trees were present during the Medieval Warm period (ca AD 800–1300) or the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM; ca 10 000–3000 years ago). Reconstruction of tree distributions during the HTM suggests that the future position of the treeline due to global warming may approximate its former Holocene maximum position. An increased dominance of evergreen tree species in the northern Siberian forests may be an important difference between past and future conditions. Based on the slow rates of treeline expansion observed during the twentieth century, the presence of steep climatic gradients associated with the current Arctic coastline and the prevalence of organic soils, it is possible that rates of treeline expansion will be regionally variable and transient forest communities with species abundances different from today's may develop. |
format |
Text |
author |
MacDonald, G.M Kremenetski, K.V Beilman, D.W |
author_facet |
MacDonald, G.M Kremenetski, K.V Beilman, D.W |
author_sort |
MacDonald, G.M |
title |
Climate change and the northern Russian treeline zone |
title_short |
Climate change and the northern Russian treeline zone |
title_full |
Climate change and the northern Russian treeline zone |
title_fullStr |
Climate change and the northern Russian treeline zone |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate change and the northern Russian treeline zone |
title_sort |
climate change and the northern russian treeline zone |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2606780 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18006415 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2200 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
albedo Arctic Climate change Global warming |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Climate change Global warming |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2606780 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18006415 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2200 |
op_rights |
© 2007 The Royal Society |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2200 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
363 |
container_issue |
1501 |
container_start_page |
2283 |
op_container_end_page |
2299 |
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1766249016651153408 |