Rapid plant colonization of the forelands of a vanishing glacier is strongly associated with species traits

Franzén, Markus; Dieker, Petra; Schrader, Julian; Helm, Aveliina

doi:10.1080/15230430.2019.1646574

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…The results of our study suggest that, irrespective of bedrock type, pioneer species tend to be wind‐dispersed, whereas late‐successional species are likely to have heavy seeds that are dispersed by animals. Similar findings were reported by Erschbamer and Mayer (2011) and Franzén et al (2019) underlining that successional processes are governed by life‐history traits such as seed mass and dispersion. Furthermore, we found a significant positive association of canopy height and terrain age which is a typical phenomenon of primary succession and is due to the increase of more competitive species in late‐successional habitats (e.g., Caccianiga et al , 2006).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…This assumption is especially supported by the fact that terrain age contributed far more to total inertia than aspect and slope. However, it must be mentioned here that there are further environmental variables, such as nutrient availability, pH, bulk density or soil moisture, which could potentially influence functional trait patterns (Holdaway et al , 2011; Rydgren et al , 2014; Freschet & Roumet, 2017; Franzén et al , 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another set of traits that is known to vary along successional gradients is linked to plant reproduction. Seed mass, seed number, and dispersal type are important parameters for the colonisation of bare surfaces (Pluess & Stöcklin, 2005; Erschbamer & Mayer, 2011; Franzén et al , 2019). Early pioneers, such as Epilobium fleischeri or Saxifraga aizoides , are known to be wind‐dispersed, to have excellent seedling recruitment, and to make use of efficient clonal growth strategies (Stöcklin, 1999; Marcante et al , 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Similar successional development of functional community structure in glacier forelands despite contrasting bedrocks

Greinwald

Gebauer

Musso

et al. 2021

J Vegetation Science

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Similar successional development of functional community structure in glacier forelands despite contrasting bedrocks

Greinwald

Gebauer

Musso

et al. 2021

J Vegetation Science

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“…In a context of unprecedented velocity of temperature warming, the absence of keystone, cushion-forming species dispersed by animals during the first steps of primary succession, such as A. aretioides in our sampling or D. muscoides and O. andina in the southern tropical high Andes (Zimmer et al, 2018), could influence the composition and functioning of novel alpine ecosystems on the longer terms, just as local species pool does (Schumann et al, 2016). The disproportionate abundance of wind-dispersed species in our sampled area was observable through the overwhelming majority of species being wind-dispersed (see also Erschbamer et al, 2008;Zimmer et al, 2018;Franzén et al, 2019 in other recently deglaciated terrains) whereas "only" 39% of the species in the tropical alpine regions of the Andes are expected to be dispersed by wind (Tovar et al, 2020).…”

Section: Deficit In Facilitation and Dispersal Filteringmentioning

confidence: 81%

Living at the Edge: Increasing Stress for Plants 2–13 Years After the Retreat of a Tropical Glacier

et al. 2021

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Rapid warming is a major threat for the alpine biodiversity but, at the same time, accelerated glacial retreat constitutes an opportunity for taxa and communities to escape range contraction or extinction. We explored the first steps of plant primary succession after accelerated glacial retreat under the assumption that the first few years are critical for the success of plant establishment. To this end, we examined plant succession along a very short post-glacial chronosequence in the tropical Andes of Ecuador (2–13 years after glacial retreat). We recorded the location of all plant individuals within an area of 4,200 m2 divided into plots of 1 m2. This sampling made it possible to measure the responses of the microenvironment, plant diversity and plants traits to time since the glacial retreat. It also made it possible to produce species-area curves and to estimate positive interactions between species. Decreases in soil temperature, soil moisture, and soil macronutrients revealed increasing abiotic stress for plants between two and 13 years after glacial retreat. This increasing stress seemingly explained the lack of positive correlation between plant diversity and time since the glacial retreat. It might explain the decreasing performance of plants at both the population (lower plant height) and the community levels (lower species richness and lower accumulation of species per area). Meanwhile, infrequent spatial associations among plants indicated a facilitation deficit and animal-dispersed plants were almost absent. Although the presence of 21 species on such a small sampled area seven years after glacial retreat could look like a colonization success in the first place, the increasing abiotic stress may partly erase this success, reducing species richness to 13 species after 13 years and increasing the frequency of patches without vegetation. This fine-grain distribution study sheds new light on nature's responses to the effects of climate change in cold biomes, suggesting that faster glacial retreat would not necessarily result in accelerated plant colonization. Results are exploratory and require site replications for generalization.

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“…In addition to analyses of species turnover, trait-based approaches have increasingly gained attention for studying succession in recent years (Prach, Pyšek, and Šmilauer 1997;Fukami et al 2005;Weppler and Stöcklin 2005;Caccianiga et al 2006;Franzén et al 2019). Functional traits reflect species' strategies to meet the local requirements during succession, such as environmental conditions or spatiotemporal isolation.…”

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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Rapid plant colonization of the forelands of a vanishing glacier is strongly associated with species traits

Abstract: Helm (2019) Rapid plant colonization of the forelands of a vanishing glacier is strongly associated with species traits,

Cited by 15 publications

References 61 publications

Similar successional development of functional community structure in glacier forelands despite contrasting bedrocks

Similar successional development of functional community structure in glacier forelands despite contrasting bedrocks

Living at the Edge: Increasing Stress for Plants 2–13 Years After the Retreat of a Tropical Glacier

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

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