No abstract

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.Keywords Alpine vegetation AE Climate change AE Resurvey study AE Thermophilization AE CryptogamsThe original version of this article was revised due to a retrospective Open Access.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article

Aim Disjunctly distributed peatmosses (Sphagnum) have been found to exhibit little genetic structure over regional and intercontinental scales, mainly caused by high ability for transoceanic long-distance dispersal. Although, most Northern Hemisphere peatmoss species have wide circumboreal/nemoral ranges, little is known about the magnitude and effects of long-distance dispersal and barriers in shaping the genetic structure of such species. We investigate whether high dispersal capacity has caused genetic homogeneity across broad areas of the Northern Hemisphere, or whether barriers act to shape genetic structure across different species with similar distributional ranges.Location Northern Hemisphere.Methods We studied genetic variation and structure in six Sphagnum species using 19 microsatellite loci.Results Four out of six species were genetically structured in similar ways; with mainly one Beringian and one Atlantic group. Overall, both the North American and Eurasian continents seemed to act as a barrier to gene flow in several species. However, the most abrupt breakpoint between genetic groups was found in south-east Alaska. Main conclusionsWe found evidence for extensive gene flow between regions across the Northern Hemisphere among peatmosses, with oceans seemingly acting as weaker barriers to gene flow than landmasses. Plants from the amphi-Atlantic and amphi-Beringian regions of several species were genetically differentiated. Similar genetic structuring across several species, indicate that spore-producing species do not disperse freely across their entire distributional range, but are likely limited by wind directions, landmass barriers and/or habitat availability.

Spore-producing organisms have small dispersal units enabling them to become widespread across continents. However, barriers to gene flow and cryptic speciation may exist. The common, haploid peatmoss Sphagnum magellanicum occurs in both the Northern and Southern hemisphere, and is commonly used as a model in studies of peatland ecology and peatmoss physiology. Even though it will likely act as a rich source in functional genomics studies in years to come, surprisingly little is known about levels of genetic variability and structuring in this species. Here, we assess for the first time how genetic variation in S. magellanicum is spatially structured across its full distribution range (Northern Hemisphere and South America). The morphologically similar species S. alaskense was included for comparison. In total, 195 plants were genotyped at 15 microsatellite loci. Sequences from two plastid loci (trnG and trnL) were obtained from 30 samples. Our results show that S. alaskense and almost all plants of S. magellanicum in the northern Pacific area are diploids and share the same gene pool. Haploid plants occur in South America, Europe, eastern North America, western North America, and southern Asia, and five genetically differentiated groups with different distribution ranges were found. Our results indicate that S. magellanicum consists of several distinct genetic groups, seemingly with little or no gene flow among them. Noteworthy, the geographical separation of diploids and haploids is strikingly similar to patterns found within other haploid Sphagnum species spanning the Northern Hemisphere. Our results confirm a genetic division between the Beringian and the Atlantic that seems to be a general pattern in Sphagnum taxa. The pattern of strong genetic population structuring throughout the distribution range of morphologically similar plants need to be considered in future functional genomic studies of S. magellanicum.

Most species are assumed to have survived south or east of the ice sheet covering northern Europe during the last glacial maximum. Molecular and macrofossil evidence suggests, however, that some species may have survived in ice-free areas in Scandinavia. In plants, inbreeding and vegetative growth are associated with low genetic load and enhanced survival in small, isolated populations. These characteristics are often found in bryophytes, possibly allowing them to survive extreme conditions in isolated refugia and also within ice sheets. Here, we review the Holocene bryophyte history in Europe highlighting main glacial refugia and post-glacial colonization routes. Also, metaanalyses are performed to investigate if distribution ranges and genetic structure are associated with life-history traits. Bryophytes survived the last glaciation in several refugia, but there is no unequivocal evidence of survival within the Scandinavian ice sheet. Northern Europe was colonized from southern, eastern and western Europe, as well as North America. Species with small spores have broader distribution ranges than species with large spores, and high frequency of sporophyte production is associated with limited genetic differentiation between populations.

We show that the two morphs represent the two main genetic clusters previously found worldwide. Our results demonstrate that relatively minor morphological differentiation in a presumed phenotypically plastic peatmoss may be associated with massive divergence across the genome.

The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) Primer identifies key ecosystem attributes for evaluating restoration outcome. Broad attribute categories could be necessary due to the large variety of restoration projects, but could make overall evaluations and assessments challenging and might hamper the development of sound and successful restoration. In this study we carry out a systematic review of scientific papers addressing evaluation of restoration outcome. We include 104 studies published after 2010 from Europe or North America, representing different types of restoration projects in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. We explore the main ecological and socioeconomic attributes used to evaluate restoration outcome, and related indicators and specific methods applied to measure this, in relation to ecosystem and type of restoration project. We identify a wide range of indicators within each attribute, and show that very different methods are employed to measure them. This complexity reduces the opportunity for meaningful comparison and standardization of evaluation of restoration outcome, within and between ecosystems. Socioeconomic indicators are rarely used to evaluate restoration outcome, and studies including both ecological and socioeconomic indicators are nearly absent. Based on our findings we discuss whether standardization and streamlining of indicators is useful to improve the evaluation of "on the ground" restoration, or if this is not appropriate given the diversity of goals and ecosystems involved. Species-specific traits are used in many projects and should be considered as an addition to the original SER attributes. Furthermore, we discuss the potential for restoration evaluation that encompasses not only assessment of ecological but also socioeconomic indicators. Implications for Practice• The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) attributes are valuable for categorizing the variety of evaluation in restoration projects, but should be expanded to include species traits and socioeconomic attributes.• Standardization of actual measurements in the field is more relevant for "on the ground" restoration than standardization of attributes and indicators.• For further progress of restoration on the large scale a combined top-down and bottom-up approach should be developed, where standardization of attributes (socioeconomic and ecological) is essential for the strategic planning while standardization of field measures are essential for exchange of experiences between individual restoration projects.

Loss of biodiversity is accelerating, including the loss of genetic diversity. Conservation of small, isolated populations may be important, as they can provide valuable contributions to overall genetic variation and long-term viability of species. Furthermore, such populations may play an essential role in adaptation to new environments following changes in e.g. land-use and climate. Dracocephalum ruyschiana is a threatened plant species throughout its European distribution, but 25% of the European populations are situated within Norway. Therefore, the species has its own action plan in Norway, which includes demographic monitoring. However, this monitoring does not cover genetic variation nor is the selection of monitored populations based on genetic differentiation, therefore this fundamental level of biodiversity is overlooked. We analyzed 43 sites using 96 SNPs developed for D. ruyschiana, to investigate whether the monitored populations cover the genetic variation and differentiation found within the Norwegian distribution. The results show structuring and differentiation between populations and indicate that there are at least four distinct genetic groups, of which only two are covered extensively by current demographic monitoring. We suggest that two sites representing the two other genetic groups should be included in the national monitoring program to better conserve the genetic variation found in the Norwegian population of D. ruyschiana. Overall, our results highlight the importance of an integrated, interdisciplinary framework to better monitor and conserve biodiversity at several levels.