Four Decades of Plant Community Change in the Alpine Tundra of Southwest Yukon, Canada
Repeat measurements from long-term plots provide precise data for studying plant community change. In 2010, we visited a remote location in Yukon, Canada, where a detailed survey of alpine tundra communities was conducted in 1968. Plant community composition was resurveyed on the same four slopes us...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3357857 2023-05-15T18:40:06+02:00 Four Decades of Plant Community Change in the Alpine Tundra of Southwest Yukon, Canada Danby, Ryan K. Koh, Saewan Hik, David S. Price, Larry W. 2011-08-24 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357857 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21954728 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0172-2 en eng Springer Netherlands http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357857 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21954728 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0172-2 © Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2011 Article Text 2011 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0172-2 2013-09-04T07:36:26Z Repeat measurements from long-term plots provide precise data for studying plant community change. In 2010, we visited a remote location in Yukon, Canada, where a detailed survey of alpine tundra communities was conducted in 1968. Plant community composition was resurveyed on the same four slopes using the same methods as the original study. Species richness and diversity increased significantly over the 42 years and non-metric multidimensional scaling indicated that community composition had also changed significantly. However, the direction and magnitude of change varied with aspect. Dominant species were not replaced or eliminated but, instead, declined in relative importance. Fine-scale changes in vegetation were evident from repeat photography and dendro-ecological analysis of erect shrubs, supporting the community-level analysis. The period of study corresponds to a mean annual temperature increase of 2°C, suggesting that climate warming has influenced these changes. Text Tundra Yukon PubMed Central (PMC) Canada Yukon AMBIO 40 6 660 671 |
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Article Danby, Ryan K. Koh, Saewan Hik, David S. Price, Larry W. Four Decades of Plant Community Change in the Alpine Tundra of Southwest Yukon, Canada |
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Article |
description |
Repeat measurements from long-term plots provide precise data for studying plant community change. In 2010, we visited a remote location in Yukon, Canada, where a detailed survey of alpine tundra communities was conducted in 1968. Plant community composition was resurveyed on the same four slopes using the same methods as the original study. Species richness and diversity increased significantly over the 42 years and non-metric multidimensional scaling indicated that community composition had also changed significantly. However, the direction and magnitude of change varied with aspect. Dominant species were not replaced or eliminated but, instead, declined in relative importance. Fine-scale changes in vegetation were evident from repeat photography and dendro-ecological analysis of erect shrubs, supporting the community-level analysis. The period of study corresponds to a mean annual temperature increase of 2°C, suggesting that climate warming has influenced these changes. |
format |
Text |
author |
Danby, Ryan K. Koh, Saewan Hik, David S. Price, Larry W. |
author_facet |
Danby, Ryan K. Koh, Saewan Hik, David S. Price, Larry W. |
author_sort |
Danby, Ryan K. |
title |
Four Decades of Plant Community Change in the Alpine Tundra of Southwest Yukon, Canada |
title_short |
Four Decades of Plant Community Change in the Alpine Tundra of Southwest Yukon, Canada |
title_full |
Four Decades of Plant Community Change in the Alpine Tundra of Southwest Yukon, Canada |
title_fullStr |
Four Decades of Plant Community Change in the Alpine Tundra of Southwest Yukon, Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Four Decades of Plant Community Change in the Alpine Tundra of Southwest Yukon, Canada |
title_sort |
four decades of plant community change in the alpine tundra of southwest yukon, canada |
publisher |
Springer Netherlands |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357857 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21954728 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0172-2 |
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Canada Yukon |
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Canada Yukon |
genre |
Tundra Yukon |
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Tundra Yukon |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357857 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21954728 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0172-2 |
op_rights |
© Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2011 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0172-2 |
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