Effect of latitude and mountain height on the timberline (Betula pubescens ssp. czerpanovii) elevation along the central Scandinavian mountain range

Previously published isoline maps of Fennoscandian timberlines show that their highest elevations lie in the high mountain areas in central south Norway and from there the limits decrease in all directions. These maps are assumed to show differences in “climatic forest limits”, but the isoline patte...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Arvid Odland
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Geographical Society of Finland 2015
Subjects:
geo
Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/cfe0ef358c8e4f02a262fd771302d94f
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spelling fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:cfe0ef358c8e4f02a262fd771302d94f 2023-05-15T16:13:06+02:00 Effect of latitude and mountain height on the timberline (Betula pubescens ssp. czerpanovii) elevation along the central Scandinavian mountain range Arvid Odland 2015-08-01 https://doaj.org/article/cfe0ef358c8e4f02a262fd771302d94f en eng Geographical Society of Finland 1798-5617 https://doaj.org/article/cfe0ef358c8e4f02a262fd771302d94f undefined Fennia: International Journal of Geography, Vol 193, Iss 2 (2015) Scandinavia Forest limit Multiple regression Ecology Global warming Massenerhebung geo envir Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2015 fttriple 2023-01-22T17:53:20Z Previously published isoline maps of Fennoscandian timberlines show that their highest elevations lie in the high mountain areas in central south Norway and from there the limits decrease in all directions. These maps are assumed to show differences in “climatic forest limits”, but the isoline patterns indicate that factors other than climate may be decisive in most of the area. Possibly the effects of ‘massenerhebung’ and the “summit syndrome” may locally have major effects on the timberline elevation. The main aim of the present study is to quantify the effect of latitude and mountain height on the regional variation of mountain birch timberline elevation. The study is a statistical analysis of previous published data on the timberline elevation and nearby mountain height. Selection of the study sites has been stratified to the Scandinavian mountain range (the Scandes) from 58 to 71o N where the timberlines reach their highest elevations. The data indicates that only the high mountain massifs in S Norway and N Sweden are sufficiently high to allow birch forests to reach their potential elevations. Stepwise regression shows that latitude explains 70.9% while both latitude and mountain explain together 89.0% of the timberline variation. Where the mountains are low (approximately 1000 m higher than the measured local timberlines) effects of the summit syndrome will lower the timberline elevation substantially and climatically determined timberlines will probably not have been reached. This indicates that models of future timberlines and thereby the alpine area extent in a warmer world may result in unrealistic conclusions without taking account of local mountain heights. Article in Journal/Newspaper Fennoscandian Unknown Norway
institution Open Polar
collection Unknown
op_collection_id fttriple
language English
topic Scandinavia
Forest limit
Multiple regression
Ecology
Global warming
Massenerhebung
geo
envir
spellingShingle Scandinavia
Forest limit
Multiple regression
Ecology
Global warming
Massenerhebung
geo
envir
Arvid Odland
Effect of latitude and mountain height on the timberline (Betula pubescens ssp. czerpanovii) elevation along the central Scandinavian mountain range
topic_facet Scandinavia
Forest limit
Multiple regression
Ecology
Global warming
Massenerhebung
geo
envir
description Previously published isoline maps of Fennoscandian timberlines show that their highest elevations lie in the high mountain areas in central south Norway and from there the limits decrease in all directions. These maps are assumed to show differences in “climatic forest limits”, but the isoline patterns indicate that factors other than climate may be decisive in most of the area. Possibly the effects of ‘massenerhebung’ and the “summit syndrome” may locally have major effects on the timberline elevation. The main aim of the present study is to quantify the effect of latitude and mountain height on the regional variation of mountain birch timberline elevation. The study is a statistical analysis of previous published data on the timberline elevation and nearby mountain height. Selection of the study sites has been stratified to the Scandinavian mountain range (the Scandes) from 58 to 71o N where the timberlines reach their highest elevations. The data indicates that only the high mountain massifs in S Norway and N Sweden are sufficiently high to allow birch forests to reach their potential elevations. Stepwise regression shows that latitude explains 70.9% while both latitude and mountain explain together 89.0% of the timberline variation. Where the mountains are low (approximately 1000 m higher than the measured local timberlines) effects of the summit syndrome will lower the timberline elevation substantially and climatically determined timberlines will probably not have been reached. This indicates that models of future timberlines and thereby the alpine area extent in a warmer world may result in unrealistic conclusions without taking account of local mountain heights.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Arvid Odland
author_facet Arvid Odland
author_sort Arvid Odland
title Effect of latitude and mountain height on the timberline (Betula pubescens ssp. czerpanovii) elevation along the central Scandinavian mountain range
title_short Effect of latitude and mountain height on the timberline (Betula pubescens ssp. czerpanovii) elevation along the central Scandinavian mountain range
title_full Effect of latitude and mountain height on the timberline (Betula pubescens ssp. czerpanovii) elevation along the central Scandinavian mountain range
title_fullStr Effect of latitude and mountain height on the timberline (Betula pubescens ssp. czerpanovii) elevation along the central Scandinavian mountain range
title_full_unstemmed Effect of latitude and mountain height on the timberline (Betula pubescens ssp. czerpanovii) elevation along the central Scandinavian mountain range
title_sort effect of latitude and mountain height on the timberline (betula pubescens ssp. czerpanovii) elevation along the central scandinavian mountain range
publisher Geographical Society of Finland
publishDate 2015
url https://doaj.org/article/cfe0ef358c8e4f02a262fd771302d94f
geographic Norway
geographic_facet Norway
genre Fennoscandian
genre_facet Fennoscandian
op_source Fennia: International Journal of Geography, Vol 193, Iss 2 (2015)
op_relation 1798-5617
https://doaj.org/article/cfe0ef358c8e4f02a262fd771302d94f
op_rights undefined
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