Combining Biodiversity Resurveys across Regions to Advance Global Change Research

Verheyen, Kris; Frenne, Pieter De; Baeten, Lander; Waller, Donald M.; Hédl, Radim; Perring, Michael P.; Blondeel, Haben; Brunet, Jörg; Chudomelová, Markéta; Decocq, Guillaume; Lombaerde, Emiel De; Depauw, Leen; Dirnböck, Thomas; Durak, Tomasz; Eriksson, Ove; Gilliam, Frank S.; Heinken, Thilo; Heinrichs, Steffi; Hermy, Martin; Jaroszewicz, Bogdan; Jenkins, Michael A.; Johnson, Susan; Kirby, K. J.; Kopecký, Martin; Landuyt, Dries; Lenoir, Jonathan; Li, Daijiang; Macek, Martin; Maes, Sybryn L.; Máliš, František; Mitchell, Fraser; Naaf, Tobias; Peterken, G. F.; Petřík, Petr; Reczyńska, Kamila; Rogers, David A.; Schei, Fride Høistad; Schmidt, Wolfgang; Standovár, Tibor; Świerkosz, Krzysztof; Ujházy, Karol; Calster, Hans Van; Vellend, Mark; Vild, Ondřej; Woods, K.D.; Wulf, Monika; Bernhardt‐Römermann, Markus

doi:10.1093/biosci/biw150

Cited by 93 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Resurveys are essential when studying shifts in community composition over time, even though they often involve sources of unwanted variability (Verheyen et al 2017). We therefore delimited the permanently marked plots during the resurvey campaigns.…”

Section: Potential Observer Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway

Vanneste

Michelsen

Graae

et al. 2017

Ecological Research

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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

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Section: Potential Observer Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway

Vanneste

Michelsen

Graae

et al. 2017

Ecological Research

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“…Long‐term nitrogen deposition and ongoing climate change may have also contributed to the diversity declines (Scheffers et al., ; Stevens, Dise, Mountford, & Gowing, ), but there was no clear pattern for these drivers based on the Ellenberg indicator values. Several other studies have documented that loss of light from canopy shading overrides the influence of nitrogen deposition and climate warming on understorey communities (De Frenne et al., , ; Helm, Essl, Mirtl, & Dirnböck, ; Verheyen et al., , ). We suspect that this has likely been the case in this study as well.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Cascading effects of canopy mortality drive long‐term changes in understorey diversity in temperate old‐growth forests of Europe

Nagel

Iacopetti

Javornik

et al. 2019

J Vegetation Science

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Questions We investigated the influence of protracted mortality of a dominant canopy tree (Abies alba) on long‐term understorey dynamics. We ask (a) how tree regeneration and understorey species diversity and composition changed over 32 years; and (b) whether the observed changes were mainly driven by mortality of A. alba. Location Three old‐growth forest reserves dominated by A. alba and Fagus sylvatica in the Dinaric Mountains of Slovenia. Method Tree layer and understorey regeneration and herbs were surveyed in 147 plots across the three forest reserves in 1983 and 2015. Soils were also sampled in 2015. The study period coincides with a protracted period of increased A. alba mortality in the canopy layer associated with anthropogenic emissions. Results Between 1983 and 2015, the decline in canopy layer A. alba caused a recruitment pulse of F. sylvatica regeneration to the subcanopy tree layer across the three reserves. These changes were accompanied by a significant decline in plot level herb species richness. A model‐based analysis of beta‐diversity revealed significant community convergence during the study period, mainly caused by the loss of rare species. Ellenberg values indicate that these changes were mainly driven by loss of understorey light, while an increase in soil pH may have played a role also. Conclusions This observational study suggests that the long‐term decline of A. alba resulted in a cascade of processes — widespread F. sylvatica recruitment that impeded penetration of light to the forest floor, and possibly a change in soil conditions due to the decline of coniferous litter. These changes caused a significant loss of herb diversity and homogenization of the understorey community across the three sites. This study sheds light on the potential cascading consequences triggered by episodes of increased tree mortality resulting from global‐change‐type drivers.

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“…Our results show that EIV are useful indicators of soil conditions in boreal forests located far north of Central Europe and thus encourage the use of EIV in spatio‐temporal analyses of vegetation data. Under global change, reliable assessments of the rate of vegetation change may be facilitated by resurveys of historical studies along large geographic gradients (Verheyen et al., ). Although historical vegetation data are available from many regions, corresponding data on environmental factors such as soil or light conditions often are lacking.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

With Ellenberg indicator values towards the north: Does the indicative power decrease with distance from Central Europe?

Hedwall

Brunet

Diekmann

2019

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim Ellenberg indicator values (EIV) are frequently used in regions outside their Central European origin as proxies for environmental conditions, a practice further boosted by the increasing scientific focus on global change. The performance of EIV outside their geographic origin and over long gradients has, however, rarely been tested. The aim of this study was to evaluate if the indicative power of EIV changes over a large geographic gradient and to analyse the potential causes of such changes. Location Sweden. Taxon Vascular plants. Methods We used data on forest understorey vegetation and soils from >15,000 plots from the Swedish National Forest Inventory to model how the relationship between community mean EIV and measured environmental variables changes along an extensive latitudinal gradient (>15°). We used Generalized Additive Mixed Models to account for the inventory design, and for potential nonlinearities in the relationship between the mean EIV and the environmental variables. Additionally, Huisman–Olff–Fresco (HOF) models were developed for the relationship between the incidence probability and the environmental variables to analyse if the widths of species niches change along the geographic gradient. Results Our study shows that EIV for N (nutrients), R (pH) and T (temperature) are useful as far north as the Arctic Circle, while those for K (continentality) showed a much weaker relationship with measured continentality. However, the indicative power of the EIV for N and R gradually became weaker towards the north along with shifts towards larger environmental niche widths of the indicator species. Main conclusions EIV are useful indicators of soil conditions in boreal forests located far north of Central Europe. However, the drop in indicative power in the northernmost regions due to increasing environmental niche widths needs to be taken into account when applying EIV along long geographic gradients to avoid spatial bias.

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Combining Biodiversity Resurveys across Regions to Advance Global Change Research

Cited by 93 publications

References 80 publications

Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway

Impact of climate change on alpine vegetation of mountain summits in Norway

Cascading effects of canopy mortality drive long‐term changes in understorey diversity in temperate old‐growth forests of Europe

With Ellenberg indicator values towards the north: Does the indicative power decrease with distance from Central Europe?

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