A Richer, Greener and Smaller Alpine World: Review and Projection of Warming-Induced Plant Cover Change in the Swedish Scandes
Alpine plant life is proliferating, biodiversity is on the rise and the mountain world appears more productive and inviting than ever. Upper range margin rise of trees and low-altitude (boreal) plant species, expansion of alpine grasslands and dwarf-shrub heaths are the modal biotic adjustments duri...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3357692 2023-05-15T18:06:18+02:00 A Richer, Greener and Smaller Alpine World: Review and Projection of Warming-Induced Plant Cover Change in the Swedish Scandes Kullman, Leif 2010-05-04 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357692 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20653278 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-010-0021-8 en eng Springer Netherlands http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357692 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20653278 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-010-0021-8 © Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2010 Review Paper Text 2010 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-010-0021-8 2013-09-04T07:35:53Z Alpine plant life is proliferating, biodiversity is on the rise and the mountain world appears more productive and inviting than ever. Upper range margin rise of trees and low-altitude (boreal) plant species, expansion of alpine grasslands and dwarf-shrub heaths are the modal biotic adjustments during the past few decades, after a century of substantial climate warming in the Swedish Scandes. This course of biotic landscape evolution has reached historical dimensions and broken a multi-millennial trend of plant cover retrogression, alpine tundra expansion, floristic and faunal impoverishment, all imposed by progressive and deterministic neoglacial climate cooling. Continued modest warming over the present century will likely be beneficial to alpine biodiversity, geoecological stability, resilience, sustainable reindeer husbandry and aesthetic landscape qualities. These aspects are highlighted by an integrative review of results from long-term monitoring of subalpine/alpine vegetation in the Swedish Scandes. This forms the basis for some tentative projections of landscape transformations in a potentially warmer future. Notably, these results and projections are not necessarily valid in other regions and differ in some respects from model predictions. Continued monitoring is mandatory as a basis for generation of more realistic vegetation and ecosystem models. Text reindeer husbandry Tundra PubMed Central (PMC) AMBIO 39 2 159 169 |
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language |
English |
topic |
Review Paper |
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Review Paper Kullman, Leif A Richer, Greener and Smaller Alpine World: Review and Projection of Warming-Induced Plant Cover Change in the Swedish Scandes |
topic_facet |
Review Paper |
description |
Alpine plant life is proliferating, biodiversity is on the rise and the mountain world appears more productive and inviting than ever. Upper range margin rise of trees and low-altitude (boreal) plant species, expansion of alpine grasslands and dwarf-shrub heaths are the modal biotic adjustments during the past few decades, after a century of substantial climate warming in the Swedish Scandes. This course of biotic landscape evolution has reached historical dimensions and broken a multi-millennial trend of plant cover retrogression, alpine tundra expansion, floristic and faunal impoverishment, all imposed by progressive and deterministic neoglacial climate cooling. Continued modest warming over the present century will likely be beneficial to alpine biodiversity, geoecological stability, resilience, sustainable reindeer husbandry and aesthetic landscape qualities. These aspects are highlighted by an integrative review of results from long-term monitoring of subalpine/alpine vegetation in the Swedish Scandes. This forms the basis for some tentative projections of landscape transformations in a potentially warmer future. Notably, these results and projections are not necessarily valid in other regions and differ in some respects from model predictions. Continued monitoring is mandatory as a basis for generation of more realistic vegetation and ecosystem models. |
format |
Text |
author |
Kullman, Leif |
author_facet |
Kullman, Leif |
author_sort |
Kullman, Leif |
title |
A Richer, Greener and Smaller Alpine World: Review and Projection of Warming-Induced Plant Cover Change in the Swedish Scandes |
title_short |
A Richer, Greener and Smaller Alpine World: Review and Projection of Warming-Induced Plant Cover Change in the Swedish Scandes |
title_full |
A Richer, Greener and Smaller Alpine World: Review and Projection of Warming-Induced Plant Cover Change in the Swedish Scandes |
title_fullStr |
A Richer, Greener and Smaller Alpine World: Review and Projection of Warming-Induced Plant Cover Change in the Swedish Scandes |
title_full_unstemmed |
A Richer, Greener and Smaller Alpine World: Review and Projection of Warming-Induced Plant Cover Change in the Swedish Scandes |
title_sort |
richer, greener and smaller alpine world: review and projection of warming-induced plant cover change in the swedish scandes |
publisher |
Springer Netherlands |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357692 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20653278 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-010-0021-8 |
genre |
reindeer husbandry Tundra |
genre_facet |
reindeer husbandry Tundra |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357692 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20653278 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-010-0021-8 |
op_rights |
© Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2010 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-010-0021-8 |
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AMBIO |
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39 |
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2 |
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159 |
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169 |
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1766177897057353728 |