Factors affecting primary succession of glacier foreland vegetation in the European Alps

Schumann, Katharina; Gewolf, Susanne; Tackenberg, Oliver

doi:10.1007/s00035-016-0166-6

Cited by 26 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…5). To some degree, the trend line for species numbers displays a negative logarithmic behaviour, indicating a kind of saturation in species establishment during succession, most likely due to inter- and intraspecific competition 22,28,29 . Also, the trend line for ground cover shows this effect towards the older sites.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Data analyses applied standard uni- and multivariate statistical procedures. As primary succession in glacier forelands commonly starts with simple agglomerations of plants and subsequently becomes more and more complex 22,28,29,44 , a quantitative assessment of the vegetation development during succession after glacier retreat is achieved by recording changes in species numbers, ground cover (of singular species and in total) as well as lifeform composition at different temporal stages. Temporal trends of changing ground cover and species numbers are derived by non-linear regressions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vegetation dynamics in Alpine glacier forelands tackled from space

Fischer

Fickert

Schwaizer

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Monitoring of plant succession in glacier forelands has so far been restricted to field sampling. In this study, in situ vegetation sampling along a chronosequence between Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum extent and the recent glacier terminus at Jamtalferner in the Austrian Alps is compared to time series of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) calculated from 13 Landsat scenes (1985–2016). The glacier terminus positions at 16 dates between the LIA maximum and 2015 were analysed from historical maps, orthophotos and LiDAR images. We sampled plots of different ages since deglaciation, from very recent to approx. 150 years: after 100 years, roughly 80% of the ground is covered by plants and ground cover does not increase significantly thereafter. The number of species increases from 10–20 species on young sites to 40–50 species after 100 years. The NDVI increases with the time of exposure from a mean of 0.11 for 1985–1991 to 0.20 in 2009 and 0.27 in 2016. As the increase in ground cover is clearly reproduced by the NDVI (R² ground cover/NDVI 0.84) – even for sparsely vegetated areas –, we see a great potential of satellite-borne NDVI to perform regional characterizations of glacier forelands for hydrological, ecological and hazard management-related applications.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation dynamics in Alpine glacier forelands tackled from space

Fischer

Fickert

Schwaizer

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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“…This finding confirms the importance of other research that has emphasized the importance of soil moisture as a driver of vegetation succession after glacier recession (e.g., Burga et al, 2010;Caccianiga & Andreis, 2001;Miller & Lane, 2019;Rydgren et al, 2014). Soil moisture is likely to be of importance for other elements of vegetation succession such as microbial systems (Levy, Robinson, Krause, Waller, & Weatherill, 2015;Marteinsdóttir, Svavarsdóttir, & Thórhallsdóttir, 2010;Marteinsdóttir, Thórhallsdóttir, & Svavarsdóttir, 2013;Raffl et al, 2006;Robinson, Fairchild, & Russell, 2008;Rydgren et al, 2014;Schumann et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These studies argued that ecosystem development was a function of time since deglaciation, which was theorized via a space-for-time substitution (Matthews, 1992) as a chronosequence. Matthews (1992) proposed a more developed conceptual model where ecological succession was not simply interpreted as a function of time but also (a) abiotic processes such as soil grain size, microrelief, microclimate, hydrology, slope, and geomorphic stability (Burga et al, 2010;Garibotti, Pissolito, & Villalba, 2011;Rydgren, Halvorsen, Töpper, & Njos, 2014;Wietrzyk, Wegrzyn, & Lisowska, 2016) and (b) biotic processes including species interaction and competition (Schumann, Gewolf, & Tackenberg, 2016). Initially, the spatial heterogeneity in abiotic processes is thought to be dominant, but as the terrain becomes more stable and ecosystem succession advances, biotic factors are thought to become more influential (Matthews, 1992).…”

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confidence: 99%

Climate‐driven change in the water sourced by trees in a de‐glaciating proglacial fore‐field, Torres del Paine, Chile

et al. 2019

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The colonization of proglacial margins by vegetation following glacier recession is a slow process, not least because glacially produced sediments are commonly well drained. Following from human‐induced climate change, warming could increase both growth rates and water availability because of glacier melting, so compensating for situations where climate change reduces precipitation. Compensation is likely a function of location, which will control access to meltwater and groundwater, themselves spatially variable. For the Olguin glacier (Torres del Paine, Chile), we test the hypothesis that as climate has warmed and precipitation has fallen, tree growth rate response is dependent upon the access of trees to glacial meltwater. Cores were taken from trees in three revegetating zones: (Z1) proglacial stream proximal, (Z3) proglacial stream distal, and (Z2) intermediate between Z1 and Z3. For trees within each zone, we measured annual tree‐ring widths and δ2H values. Z1 growth rates were strongly correlated with temperature and Z3 with precipitation, and Z2 showed a shift from precipitation correlation (i.e., following Z3) to temperature correlation (i.e., following Z1) through time. δ2H values were lowest at Z1, reflecting water of glacial origin, were highest at Z3, reflecting meteoric water supply, and shifted through time at Z2 from meteoric to glacial. Increased water supply associated with temperature‐driven glacier recession may compensate for decreasing water supply from precipitation to influence tree growth. This compensation is likely related to the spatial organization of the subsurface flux of glacial melt and leads to different revegetation processes to those envisaged in the classical chronosequence model of vegetation following glacier recession.

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“…During succession in alpine glacier forelands, not only do cover and biomass change quickly but species composition does, too (Matthews and Whittaker 1987;Chapin et al 1994;Raffl and Erschbamer 2004;Raffl et al 2006;Matthews 2009, 2010;Burga et al 2010). Because of the site-specific differences in abiotic and biotic conditions, successional seres are known to be highly variable (Caccianiga and Andreis 2004;Schumann, Gewolf, and Tackenberg 2016). Nevertheless, patterns of vegetation dynamics show similarities in their main features.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertical root distribution and biomass allocation along proglacial chronosequences in Central Switzerland

Greinwald

Dieckmann

Schipplick

et al. 2021

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

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Investigating changes in belowground functional plant traits is an important step toward a better understanding of vegetation dynamics during primary succession. However, in alpine glacier forelands, we still lack an accurate assessment of plant rooting patterns. In this study, we established two proglacial chronosequences with contrasting bedrocks to investigate changes in rooting patterns and biomass allocation with terrain age. We extracted soil cores up to 1 m depth and measured root traits every 10 cm of each drilled core. Furthermore, we sampled aboveground biomass determining the contributions of functional groups to total aboveground biomass. We found that root traits associated with the root economics spectrum varied significantly along the chronosequences. Vertical root distribution coefficients revealed that early successional communities had more evenly distributed root systems compared to late successional communities. Biomass allocation showed diverging patterns. We found evidence for both the isometric allocation and optimal partitioning hypotheses. In addition, we observed a significant correlation between rooting parameters and plant community composition, suggesting that the dominance of distinct plant functional groups was one important factor explaining the observed rooting patterns. Our results shed light on the often neglected belowground compartments during plant succession and contribute to a better understanding of hillslope functioning.

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Factors affecting primary succession of glacier foreland vegetation in the European Alps

Cited by 26 publications

References 35 publications

Vegetation dynamics in Alpine glacier forelands tackled from space

Vegetation dynamics in Alpine glacier forelands tackled from space

Climate‐driven change in the water sourced by trees in a de‐glaciating proglacial fore‐field, Torres del Paine, Chile

Vertical root distribution and biomass allocation along proglacial chronosequences in Central Switzerland

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