Dominance hierarchies, diversity and species richness of vascular plants in an alpine meadow: contrasting short and medium term responses to simulated global change
We studied the impact of simulated global change on a high alpine meadow plant community. Specifically, we examined whether short-term (5 years) responses are good predictors for medium-term (7 years) changes in the system by applying a factorial warming and nutrient manipulation to 20 plots in Latn...
Published in: | PeerJ |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Miljö, MILJÖ
2014
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vti:diva-6902 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.406 |
id |
ftsvtinstitut:oai:DiVA.org:vti-6902 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftsvtinstitut:oai:DiVA.org:vti-6902 2023-05-15T15:01:57+02:00 Dominance hierarchies, diversity and species richness of vascular plants in an alpine meadow: contrasting short and medium term responses to simulated global change Alatalo, Juha M. Little, Chelsea, J. Jägerbrand, Annika Molau, Ulf 2014 application/pdf http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vti:diva-6902 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.406 eng eng Miljö, MILJÖ Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Visby, Sweden Göteborgs Universitet PeerJ, 2167-8359, 2014, 2, http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vti:diva-6902 doi:10.7717/peerj.406 PMID 24883260 ISI:000347608100010 Scopus 2-s2.0-84903852485 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Vegetation Global warming Impact study Environmental Sciences Miljövetenskap Article in journal info:eu-repo/semantics/article text 2014 ftsvtinstitut https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.406 2022-04-13T19:16:42Z We studied the impact of simulated global change on a high alpine meadow plant community. Specifically, we examined whether short-term (5 years) responses are good predictors for medium-term (7 years) changes in the system by applying a factorial warming and nutrient manipulation to 20 plots in Latnjajaure, subarctic Sweden. Seven years of experimental warming and nutrient enhancement caused dramatic shifts in dominance hierarchies in response to the nutrient and the combined warming and nutrient enhancement treatments. Dominance hierarchies in the meadow moved from a community being dominated by cushion plants, deciduous, and evergreen shrubs to a community being dominated by grasses, sedges, and forbs. Short-term responses were shown to be inconsistent in their ability to predict medium-term responses for most functional groups, however, grasses showed a consistent and very substantial increase in response to nutrient addition over the seven years. The non-linear responses over time point out the importance of longer-term studies with repeated measurements to be able to better predict future changes. Forecasted changes to temperature and nutrient availability have implications for trophic interactions, and may ultimately influence the access to and palatability of the forage for grazers. Depending on what anthropogenic change will be most pronounced in the future (increase in nutrient deposits, warming, or a combination of them both), different shifts in community dominance hierarchies may occur. Generally, this study supports the productivity–diversity relationship found across arctic habitats, with community diversity peaking in mid-productivity systems and degrading as nutrient availability increases further. This is likely due the increasing competition in plant–plant interactions and the shifting dominance structure with grasses taking over the experimental plots, suggesting that global change could have high costs to biodiversity in the Arctic. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Global warming Subarctic Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute: Publications (DiVA) Arctic Latnjajaure ENVELOPE(18.485,18.485,68.359,68.359) PeerJ 2 e406 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute: Publications (DiVA) |
op_collection_id |
ftsvtinstitut |
language |
English |
topic |
Vegetation Global warming Impact study Environmental Sciences Miljövetenskap |
spellingShingle |
Vegetation Global warming Impact study Environmental Sciences Miljövetenskap Alatalo, Juha M. Little, Chelsea, J. Jägerbrand, Annika Molau, Ulf Dominance hierarchies, diversity and species richness of vascular plants in an alpine meadow: contrasting short and medium term responses to simulated global change |
topic_facet |
Vegetation Global warming Impact study Environmental Sciences Miljövetenskap |
description |
We studied the impact of simulated global change on a high alpine meadow plant community. Specifically, we examined whether short-term (5 years) responses are good predictors for medium-term (7 years) changes in the system by applying a factorial warming and nutrient manipulation to 20 plots in Latnjajaure, subarctic Sweden. Seven years of experimental warming and nutrient enhancement caused dramatic shifts in dominance hierarchies in response to the nutrient and the combined warming and nutrient enhancement treatments. Dominance hierarchies in the meadow moved from a community being dominated by cushion plants, deciduous, and evergreen shrubs to a community being dominated by grasses, sedges, and forbs. Short-term responses were shown to be inconsistent in their ability to predict medium-term responses for most functional groups, however, grasses showed a consistent and very substantial increase in response to nutrient addition over the seven years. The non-linear responses over time point out the importance of longer-term studies with repeated measurements to be able to better predict future changes. Forecasted changes to temperature and nutrient availability have implications for trophic interactions, and may ultimately influence the access to and palatability of the forage for grazers. Depending on what anthropogenic change will be most pronounced in the future (increase in nutrient deposits, warming, or a combination of them both), different shifts in community dominance hierarchies may occur. Generally, this study supports the productivity–diversity relationship found across arctic habitats, with community diversity peaking in mid-productivity systems and degrading as nutrient availability increases further. This is likely due the increasing competition in plant–plant interactions and the shifting dominance structure with grasses taking over the experimental plots, suggesting that global change could have high costs to biodiversity in the Arctic. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Alatalo, Juha M. Little, Chelsea, J. Jägerbrand, Annika Molau, Ulf |
author_facet |
Alatalo, Juha M. Little, Chelsea, J. Jägerbrand, Annika Molau, Ulf |
author_sort |
Alatalo, Juha M. |
title |
Dominance hierarchies, diversity and species richness of vascular plants in an alpine meadow: contrasting short and medium term responses to simulated global change |
title_short |
Dominance hierarchies, diversity and species richness of vascular plants in an alpine meadow: contrasting short and medium term responses to simulated global change |
title_full |
Dominance hierarchies, diversity and species richness of vascular plants in an alpine meadow: contrasting short and medium term responses to simulated global change |
title_fullStr |
Dominance hierarchies, diversity and species richness of vascular plants in an alpine meadow: contrasting short and medium term responses to simulated global change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dominance hierarchies, diversity and species richness of vascular plants in an alpine meadow: contrasting short and medium term responses to simulated global change |
title_sort |
dominance hierarchies, diversity and species richness of vascular plants in an alpine meadow: contrasting short and medium term responses to simulated global change |
publisher |
Miljö, MILJÖ |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vti:diva-6902 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.406 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(18.485,18.485,68.359,68.359) |
geographic |
Arctic Latnjajaure |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Latnjajaure |
genre |
Arctic Global warming Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic Global warming Subarctic |
op_relation |
PeerJ, 2167-8359, 2014, 2, http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vti:diva-6902 doi:10.7717/peerj.406 PMID 24883260 ISI:000347608100010 Scopus 2-s2.0-84903852485 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.406 |
container_title |
PeerJ |
container_volume |
2 |
container_start_page |
e406 |
_version_ |
1766333956156817408 |