Commentary: Novel competitors shape species' responses to climate change

Fadrique, Belén; Feeley, Kenneth J.

doi:10.3389/fevo.2016.00033

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Another natural factor that may slow or prevent tree migrations is priority effects [37]. For a species to migrate and expand its range into new areas, it will have to compete with the established incumbent species [38].…”

Section: Thermophilizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropical Trees Will Need to Acclimate to Rising Temperatures—But Can They?

Feeley,

Bernal-Escobar,

Fortier

et al. 2023

Plants

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For tropical forests to survive anthropogenic global warming, trees will need to avoid rising temperatures through range shifts and “species migrations” or tolerate the newly emerging conditions through adaptation and/or acclimation. In this literature review, we synthesize the available knowledge to show that although many tropical tree species are shifting their distributions to higher, cooler elevations, the rates of these migrations are too slow to offset ongoing changes in temperatures, especially in lowland tropical rainforests where thermal gradients are shallow or nonexistent. We also show that the rapidity and severity of global warming make it unlikely that tropical tree species can adapt (with some possible exceptions). We argue that the best hope for tropical tree species to avoid becoming “committed to extinction” is individual-level acclimation. Although several new methods are being used to test for acclimation, we unfortunately still do not know if tropical tree species can acclimate, how acclimation abilities vary between species, or what factors may prevent or facilitate acclimation. Until all of these questions are answered, our ability to predict the fate of tropical species and tropical forests—and the many services that they provide to humanity—remains critically impaired.

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Section: Thermophilizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropical Trees Will Need to Acclimate to Rising Temperatures—But Can They?

Feeley,

Bernal-Escobar,

Fortier

et al. 2023

Plants

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“…On the other hand, high-elevation competitors had little or no effect on the plants migrating upslope. Further similar experimental studies could enable us to better understand plant community responses to altered competitive interactions under climate change (Alexander et al, 2016) and address additional areas of uncertainty, such as priority effects (Fadrique and Feeley, 2016).…”

Section: Predicted Species Response and Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mountain Ecosystems as Natural Laboratories for Climate Change Experiments

Tito

Vasconcelos

Feeley

2020

Front. For. Glob. Change

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Experimental studies are needed to empirically examine the effects of climate change on terrestrial organisms and to serve as the basis for predictions and management practices. As such, designing and implementing experimental systems that can simulate complex changes in the natural environment is currently a major area of interest of climate change science. Most climate change experiments (e.g., infrared heaters, open-top chambers) are typically performed within small, controlled environments and often manipulate just temperature and/or CO 2 concentration. Other factors are more difficult to control (e.g., wind speed, soil moisture) or are frequently ignored (e.g., biotic interactions), leading to uncertainties in the results and limiting our ability to make realistic predictions about species' responses to future environmental changes. We examined the natural variation of abiotic and biotic factors along mountain elevational gradients in order to highlight the potential for using these systems as natural laboratories for climate change research and experiments. The high variability of different abiotic and biotic factors along elevational gradients provides a good opportunity to carry out field transplant/translocation experiments aimed at answering some critical questions, including: How will new biotic assemblages affect key interactions and processes? What are the factors that influence species assemblages under novel climates? How do local abiotic factors influence the establishment of species migrating into novel and climatically suitable habitats? Based on empirical evidence, we strongly encourage researchers to take advantage of the natural environmental gradients found in mountains to study the potential direct and indirect impacts of climate change on species, communities and biodiversity as a whole.

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“…These species primarily come from subalpine steppe or forest belts, resulting in an increase in the upper limit of the distribution of steppe belts and tree lines 13 , 14 . This trend of species migration has led to the emergence of low-altitude species adapted to the warm environment in alpine vegetation belts and the increase of species richness in high altitude areas 15 . Moreover, due to the ability of alpine plants or cushion-like vegetation to improve the living environment, the upward migration of species in low mountain belts has increased further 16 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of altitudinal vegetation belts of the Tianshan Mountains in northwestern China to climate change during 1989–2015

Zhang

Liu

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Within the mountain altitudinal vegetation belts, the shift of forest tree lines and subalpine steppe belts to high altitudes constitutes an obvious response to global climate change. However, whether or not similar changes occur in steppe belts (low altitude) and nival belts in different areas within mountain systems remain undetermined. It is also unknown if these, responses to climate change are consistent. Here, using Landsat remote sensing images from 1989 to 2015, we obtained the spatial distribution of altitudinal vegetation belts in different periods of the Tianshan Mountains in Northwestern China. We suggest that the responses from different altitudinal vegetation belts to global climate change are different. The changes in the vegetation belts at low altitudes are spatially different. In high-altitude regions (higher than the forest belts), however, the trend of different altitudinal belts is consistent. Specifically, we focused on analyses of the impact of changes in temperature and precipitation on the nival belts, desert steppe belts, and montane steppe belts. The results demonstrated that the temperature in the study area exhibited an increasing trend, and is the main factor of altitudinal vegetation belts change in the Tianshan Mountains. In the context of a significant increase in temperature, the upper limit of the montane steppe in the eastern and central parts will shift to lower altitudes, which may limit the development of local animal husbandry. The montane steppe in the west, however, exhibits the opposite trend, which may augment the carrying capacity of pastures and promote the development of local animal husbandry. The lower limit of the nival belt will further increase in all studied areas, which may lead to an increase in surface runoff in the central and western regions.

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Commentary: Novel competitors shape species' responses to climate change

Cited by 6 publications

References 15 publications

Tropical Trees Will Need to Acclimate to Rising Temperatures—But Can They?

Tropical Trees Will Need to Acclimate to Rising Temperatures—But Can They?

Mountain Ecosystems as Natural Laboratories for Climate Change Experiments

Response of altitudinal vegetation belts of the Tianshan Mountains in northwestern China to climate change during 1989–2015

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