Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway
Climate change is affecting the composition and functioning of ecosystems across the globe. Mountain ecosystems are particularly sensitive to climate warming since their biota is generally limited by low temperatures. Cryptogams such as lichens and bryophytes are important for the biodiversity and f...
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2017
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ftunivgent:oai:archive.ugent.be:8522565 2023-06-11T04:09:44+02:00 Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway Vanneste, Thomas Michelsen, Ottar Graae, Bente Jessen Kyrkjeeide, Magni Olsen Holien, Håkon Hassel, Kristian Lindmo, Sigrid Kapás, Rozália Erzsebet De Frenne, Pieter 2017 application/pdf https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8522565 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8522565 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-017-1472-1 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8522565/file/8548007 eng eng https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8522565 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8522565 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11284-017-1472-1 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8522565/file/8548007 No license (in copyright) info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ISSN: 0912-3814 ISSN: 1440-1703 Earth and Environmental Sciences Biology and Life Sciences Alpine vegetation Climate change Resurvey study Thermophilization Cryptogams LITTER DECOMPOSITION RATES VASCULAR PLANTS SPECIES RICHNESS ARCTIC VEGETATION GLOBAL CHANGE RESPONSES TUNDRA BRYOPHYTES ECOSYSTEMS DIVERSITY journalArticle info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2017 ftunivgent https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-017-1472-1 2023-05-10T22:21:20Z Climate change is affecting the composition and functioning of ecosystems across the globe. Mountain ecosystems are particularly sensitive to climate warming since their biota is generally limited by low temperatures. Cryptogams such as lichens and bryophytes are important for the biodiversity and functioning of these ecosystems, but have not often been incorporated in vegetation resurvey studies. Hence, we lack a good understanding of how vascular plants, lichens and bryophytes respond interactively to climate warming in alpine communities. Here we quantified long-term changes in species richness, cover, composition and thermophilization (i.e. the increasing dominance of warm-adapted species) of vascular plants, lichens and bryophytes on four summits at Dovrefjell, Norway. These summits are situated along an elevational gradient from the low alpine to high alpine zone and were surveyed for all species in 2001, 2008 and 2015. During the 15-year period, a decline in lichen richness and increase in bryophyte richness was detected, whereas no change in vascular plant richness was found. Dwarf-shrub abundance progressively increased at the expense of lichens, and thermophilization was most pronounced for vascular plants, but occurred only on the lowest summits and northern aspects. Lichens showed less thermophilization and, for the bryophytes, no significant thermophilization was found. Although recent climate change may have primarily caused the observed changes in vegetation, combined effects with non-climatic factors (e.g. grazing and trampling) are likely important as well. At a larger scale, alpine vegetation shifts could have a profound impact on biosphere functioning with feedbacks to the global climate. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Dovrefjell Tundra Ghent University Academic Bibliography Arctic Norway Dovrefjell ENVELOPE(13.500,13.500,79.000,79.000) Ecological Research 32 4 579 593 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Ghent University Academic Bibliography |
op_collection_id |
ftunivgent |
language |
English |
topic |
Earth and Environmental Sciences Biology and Life Sciences Alpine vegetation Climate change Resurvey study Thermophilization Cryptogams LITTER DECOMPOSITION RATES VASCULAR PLANTS SPECIES RICHNESS ARCTIC VEGETATION GLOBAL CHANGE RESPONSES TUNDRA BRYOPHYTES ECOSYSTEMS DIVERSITY |
spellingShingle |
Earth and Environmental Sciences Biology and Life Sciences Alpine vegetation Climate change Resurvey study Thermophilization Cryptogams LITTER DECOMPOSITION RATES VASCULAR PLANTS SPECIES RICHNESS ARCTIC VEGETATION GLOBAL CHANGE RESPONSES TUNDRA BRYOPHYTES ECOSYSTEMS DIVERSITY Vanneste, Thomas Michelsen, Ottar Graae, Bente Jessen Kyrkjeeide, Magni Olsen Holien, Håkon Hassel, Kristian Lindmo, Sigrid Kapás, Rozália Erzsebet De Frenne, Pieter Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway |
topic_facet |
Earth and Environmental Sciences Biology and Life Sciences Alpine vegetation Climate change Resurvey study Thermophilization Cryptogams LITTER DECOMPOSITION RATES VASCULAR PLANTS SPECIES RICHNESS ARCTIC VEGETATION GLOBAL CHANGE RESPONSES TUNDRA BRYOPHYTES ECOSYSTEMS DIVERSITY |
description |
Climate change is affecting the composition and functioning of ecosystems across the globe. Mountain ecosystems are particularly sensitive to climate warming since their biota is generally limited by low temperatures. Cryptogams such as lichens and bryophytes are important for the biodiversity and functioning of these ecosystems, but have not often been incorporated in vegetation resurvey studies. Hence, we lack a good understanding of how vascular plants, lichens and bryophytes respond interactively to climate warming in alpine communities. Here we quantified long-term changes in species richness, cover, composition and thermophilization (i.e. the increasing dominance of warm-adapted species) of vascular plants, lichens and bryophytes on four summits at Dovrefjell, Norway. These summits are situated along an elevational gradient from the low alpine to high alpine zone and were surveyed for all species in 2001, 2008 and 2015. During the 15-year period, a decline in lichen richness and increase in bryophyte richness was detected, whereas no change in vascular plant richness was found. Dwarf-shrub abundance progressively increased at the expense of lichens, and thermophilization was most pronounced for vascular plants, but occurred only on the lowest summits and northern aspects. Lichens showed less thermophilization and, for the bryophytes, no significant thermophilization was found. Although recent climate change may have primarily caused the observed changes in vegetation, combined effects with non-climatic factors (e.g. grazing and trampling) are likely important as well. At a larger scale, alpine vegetation shifts could have a profound impact on biosphere functioning with feedbacks to the global climate. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vanneste, Thomas Michelsen, Ottar Graae, Bente Jessen Kyrkjeeide, Magni Olsen Holien, Håkon Hassel, Kristian Lindmo, Sigrid Kapás, Rozália Erzsebet De Frenne, Pieter |
author_facet |
Vanneste, Thomas Michelsen, Ottar Graae, Bente Jessen Kyrkjeeide, Magni Olsen Holien, Håkon Hassel, Kristian Lindmo, Sigrid Kapás, Rozália Erzsebet De Frenne, Pieter |
author_sort |
Vanneste, Thomas |
title |
Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway |
title_short |
Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway |
title_full |
Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway |
title_fullStr |
Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway |
title_full_unstemmed |
Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway |
title_sort |
impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in norway |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8522565 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8522565 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-017-1472-1 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8522565/file/8548007 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(13.500,13.500,79.000,79.000) |
geographic |
Arctic Norway Dovrefjell |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Norway Dovrefjell |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Dovrefjell Tundra |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Dovrefjell Tundra |
op_source |
ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ISSN: 0912-3814 ISSN: 1440-1703 |
op_relation |
https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8522565 http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8522565 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11284-017-1472-1 https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8522565/file/8548007 |
op_rights |
No license (in copyright) info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-017-1472-1 |
container_title |
Ecological Research |
container_volume |
32 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
579 |
op_container_end_page |
593 |
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1768383727517302784 |