35 Abstract Understanding the sensitivity of tundra vegetation to climate warming is critical to forecasting future biodiversity and vegetation feedbacks to climate. In situ warming experiments accelerate climate change on a small scale to forecast responses of local plant communities. Limitations of this approach include the apparent site-specificity of results and uncertainty about the power of short-term studies to anticipate longer term change. We address these issues with a synthesis of 61 experimental warming studies, of up to 20 years duration, in tundra sites worldwide. The response of plant groups to warming often differed with ambient summer temperature, soil moisture and experimental duration. Shrubs increased with warming only where ambient temperature was high, whereas graminoids increased primarily in the coldest study sites. Linear increases in effect size over time were frequently observed. There was little indication of saturating or accelerating effects, as would be predicted if negative or positive vegetation feedbacks were common. These results indicate that tundra vegetation exhibits strong regional variation in response to warming, and that in vulnerable regions, cumulative effects of long-term warming on tundra vegetation - and associated ecosystem consequences - have the potential to be much greater than we have observed to date.

/pdf/global-assessment-of-experimental-climate-warming-on-tundra-57e0fqbx8b.pdf

Global assessment of experimental climate warming on tundra vegetation: heterogeneity over space and time.

Upward shifts of mountain vegetation lag behind rates of climate warming, partly related to interconnected changes belowground. Here, we unravel above- and belowground linkages by drawing insights from short-term experimental manipulations and elevation gradient studies. Soils will likely gain carbon in early successional ecosystems, while losing carbon as forest expands upward, and the slow, high-elevation soil development will constrain warming-induced vegetation shifts. Current approaches fail to predict the pace of these changes and how much they will be modified by interactions among plants and soil biota. Integrating mountain soils and their biota into monitoring programs, combined with innovative comparative and experimental approaches, will be crucial to overcome the paucity of belowground data and to better understand mountain ecosystem dynamics and their feedbacks to climate.

Above- and belowground linkages shape responses of mountain vegetation to climate change

https://escholarship.org/content/qt88k3v71b/qt88k3v71b.pdf?t=obaam8

Differential response of alpine steppe and alpine meadow to climate warming in the central Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

While there is a large consensus that plant–plant interactions are a crucial component of the response of plant communities to the effects of climate change, available data remain scarce, particularly in alpine systems. This represents an important obstacle to making consistent predictions about the future of plant communities. Here, we review current knowledge on the effects of climate change on facilitation among alpine plant communities and propose directions for future research. In established alpine communities, while warming seemingly generates a net facilitation release, earlier snowmelt may increase facilitation. Some nurse plants are able to buffer microenvironmental changes in the long term and may ensure the persistence of other alpine plants through local migration events. For communities migrating to higher elevations, facilitation should play an important role in their reorganization because of the harsher environmental conditions. In particular, the absence of efficient nurse plants might slow down upward migration, possibly generating chains of extinction. Facilitation–climate change relationships are expected to shift along latitudinal gradients because (1) the magnitude of warming is predicted to vary along these gradients, and (2) alpine environments are significantly different at low vs. high latitudes. Data on these expected patterns are preliminary and thus need to be tested with further studies on facilitation among plants in alpine environments that have thus far not been considered. From a methodological standpoint, future studies will benefit from the spatial representation of the microclimatic environment of plants to predict their response to climate change. Moreover, the acquisition of long-term data on the dynamics of plant–plant interactions, either through permanent plots or chronosequences of glacial recession, may represent powerful approaches to clarify the relationship between plant interactions and climate change.

/pdf/facilitation-among-plants-in-alpine-environments-in-the-face-15ul5ugwvz.pdf

Facilitation among plants in alpine environments in the face of climate change

Summary


1 Identifying plant communities that are resistant to climate change will be critical for developing accurate, wide-scale vegetation change predictions Most northern plant communities, especially tundra, have shown strong responses to experimental and observed warming



2 Experimental warming is a key tool for understanding vegetation responses to climate change We used open-top chambers to passively warm an evergreen-shrub heath by 10–13 °C for 15 years at Alexandra Fiord, Nunavut, Canada (79 °N) In 1996, 2000 and 2007, we measured height, plant composition and abundance with a point-intercept method



3 Experimental warming did not strongly affect vascular plant cover, canopy height or species diversity, but it did increase bryophyte cover by 63% and decrease lichen cover by 35% Temporal changes in plant cover were more frequent and of greater magnitude than changes due to experimental warming



4 Synthesis This evergreen-shrub heath continues to exhibit community-level resistance to long-term experimental warming, in contrast to most Arctic plant communities Our findings support the view that only substantial climatic changes will alter unproductive ecosystems

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2010.01690.x

High Arctic plant community resists 15 years of experimental warming

Question: How will warming and increased nutrient availability affect individual alpine plant species abundances (nonvascular and vascular) and community composition? Location: Dryas octopetala heath at alpine Finse, southern Norway. Methods: Four years with experimental warming (open top chambers) and nutrient addition. Detrended Correspondence Analysis and Redundancy Analysis were used to examine changes in community composition. GLM-ANOVA was used to examine treatment effects on individual species. Results: Warming alone decreased the abundance of some Carex and bryophyte species, but did not affect community composition. Nutrient addition and warming combined with nutrient addition increased the abundance of high stature species, such as grasses (Festuca spp., Poa alpina) and some forbs (e.g. Cerastium alpinum, Potentilla crantzii). Low stature forbs (e.g. Tofieldia pusilla), a lycophyte (Selaginella selaginoides) and most bryophytes and lichens decreased in abundance. After four years of warming combined with nutrient addition 57% of the mosses, 57% of the liverworts and 44% of the lichens had completely disappeared. Community composition changed significantly, with the largest shift when warming and nutrient addition was combined. Conclusions: Tall species may expand at the expense of low stature species in the alpine region if temperature and soil nutrient content increase. Contrasting responses between grasses and sedges, and species-specific responses within forbs, sedges and shrubs, within and across alpine and arctic sites, suggest that the use of functional types in environmental change research may mask important information on individual species responses. The response of one species within a functional type cannot predict the response of another.

/pdf/species-specific-responses-of-an-alpine-plant-community-5evu7865in.pdf

Species-specific responses of an alpine plant community under simulated environmental change

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Species-specific responses of an alpine plant community under simulated environmental change