Some (do not) like it hot: shrub growth is hampered by heat and drought at the alpine treeline in recent decades

Francon, Loïc; Corona, Christophe; Till–Bottraud, Irène; Carlson, Bradley Z.; Stoffel, Markus

doi:10.1002/ajb2.1459

Cited by 25 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…The application of herbchronological techniques to a broadly distributed alpine forb in high Himalayas proved to be very effective for assessing long‐term growth and recruitment dynamics in relation to climate change (Büntgen et al., 2015; Dee & Stambaugh, 2019; Myers‐Smith & Hik, 2018; von Arx, Edwards, & Dietz, 2006). Overall, our results align with the growing evidence of rapid plant responses to ongoing climate change in mountain ecosystems (Anderson et al., 2020; Francon, Corona, Till‐Bottraud, Carlson, & Stoffel, 2020). However, by sampling populations across the entire elevation range of the species, from upper to lower range margins, we identified contrasting climatic controls of recruitment and growth at opposite elevation range margins, as well as contrasting demographic trends identified from age distributions.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Overall, our results align with the growing evidence of rapid plant responses to ongoing climate change in mountain ecosystems (Anderson et al, 2020;Francon, Corona, Till-Bottraud, Carlson, & Stoffel, 2020). However, by sampling populations across the entire elevation range of the species, from upper to lower range margins, we identified contrasting climatic controls of recruitment and growth at opposite elevation range margins, as well as contrasting demographic trends identified from age distributions.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

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Climate warming drives Himalayan alpine plant growth and recruitment dynamics

et al. 2020

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Understanding how climate influences plant reproduction and growth at contrasting range limits is crucial for predicting how species' ranges may shift in response to ongoing climate change. Trees and shrubs have shown warming‐induced increases in performance at upper elevation limits but reduced performance at lower distributional limits due to warming‐driven drought limitation. Whether these differential responses are also valid for alpine forbs exposed to accelerated warming remains largely unknown. We examined climate signal recorded in annual growth and recruitment over the past 60 years in the alpine forb Potentilla pamirica in Western Himalayas, and tested whether the responses to recent climate warming differ between dry steppe, wet alpine and cold subnival zone within the species 5,250–5,900 m elevation range. We reconstructed recruitment and growth chronologies from 1,019 individuals spanning 1–73 years, and more than 21,500 annual growth rings. We identified contrasting climatic controls of recruitment and growth at opposite elevation range margins, as well as contrasting demographic trends identified from age distributions. In lower‐elevation steppes, recruitment increased with high late‐winter snowfall and decreased with high summer temperatures, while growth increased with high summer precipitation. Conversely, warm winters and summers in higher‐elevation alpine and subnival zones support growth and recruitment, while snowy winters reduce them, especially at their upper elevation limit. The age distribution revealed greater numbers of younger individuals, indicating healthy growing populations, in the alpine habitat, while evidence of ageing plant populations was observed in steppe and subnival zones. Accelerated warming since the 1990s reduced growth and recruitment in dry steppes while supporting plant performance in the alpine habitat. The recruitment in the subnival zone did not peak during the past warmest decade due to concomitant extreme snowfall events. Synthesis. Our results provide novel information on population‐specific climate dependency of plant recruitment, growth and population dynamics, suggesting the high vulnerability of high‐elevation Himalayan ecosystems to climate change. This is partly balanced by high species longevity and slow radial growth securing a long‐term population persistence. Continuing trends of extreme snowfall events at higher elevations and droughts at lower elevations may lead to species range contraction.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Climate warming drives Himalayan alpine plant growth and recruitment dynamics

et al. 2020

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“…Winter deacclimation is a crucial step that has however been much understudied [9]. Worryingly, mountain ecosystems are warming even faster than the global average [18,19] and the ecophysiological response of high mountain plants to heat stress is increasingly being addressed [10,[20][21][22][23]. While irradiance seems to attenuate high temperature effects over their photosynthetic tissues by enhancing photoprotective and antioxidant responses, heat plus drought appears to be a catastrophic combination [22,23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unexpected Vulnerability to High Temperature in the Mediterranean Alpine Shrub Erysimum scoparium (Brouss. ex Willd.) Wettst

González-Rodrı́guez

Pérez-Martín

Brito

et al. 2021

Plants

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Current understanding of the effects of extreme temperature on alpine evergreens is very limited for ecosystems under Mediterranean climate (characterised by a drought period in summer), despite being exceptionally biodiverse systems and highly vulnerable under a global change scenario. We thus assessed (i) seasonal change and (ii) effect of ontogeny (young vs. mature leaves) on thermal sensitivity of Erysimum scoparium, a keystone evergreen of Teide mountain (Canary Islands). Mature leaves were comparatively much more vulnerable to moderately high leaf-temperature (≥+40 and <+50 °C) than other alpine species. Lowest LT50 occurred in autumn (−9.0 ± 1.6 °C as estimated with Rfd, and −12.9 ± 1.5 °C with Fv/Fm). Remarkably, young leaves showed stronger freezing tolerance than mature leaves in spring (LT50 −10.3 ± 2.1 °C vs. −5.6 ± 0.9 °C in mature leaves, as estimated with Rfd). Our data support the use of Rfd as a sensitive parameter to diagnose temperature-related damage in the leaves of mountain plants. On a global change scenario, E. scoparium appears as a well-prepared species for late-frost events, however rather vulnerable to moderately high temperatures.

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“…Moreover, the growth of forest trees world‐wide is becoming more water‐limited as the climate warms (Babst et al ., 2019). All of these warming‐induced changes have been repeatedly demonstrated in trees and shrubs (Hallinger et al ., 2010; Rundqvist et al ., 2011; Francon et al ., 2020), but it is unclear whether these trends also apply to herbaceous plants (Weijers et al ., 2012; Klimešová et al ., 2013), which constitute the large majority of flowering plants and dominate in many ecosystems, such as the alpine habitats.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These attributes can be decoded through similar techniques to those applied to woody species (Gärtner & Schweingruber, 2013). These natural archives provide high resolution temporal and spatial data on past biomass production and thus allow tracking of past climate influences on plant performance several decades back (Francon et al ., 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alpine plant growth and reproduction dynamics in a warmer world

et al. 2020

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Climate warming may stimulate growth and reproduction in cold-adapted plants, but also reduce their performance due to warming-induced drought limitation. We tested this theory using a unique experiment with the alpine forb Rumex alpinus. We examined how climate warming over the past four decades affected its annual rhizome growth, leaf production and flowering, and whether responses varied between alpine, subalpine and montane populations. Before the period of accelerated warming in the 1970s and 1980s, the primary limitation on growth had been cold temperatures and short growing seasons. Increased summer temperatures in the 1990s and 2000s enhanced rhizome growth and leaf production, but not flowering. Alpine and subalpine plants profit more than montane plants, currently producing three times longer annual rhizome increments and twice as many leaves as 40 yr ago, and achieving nearly the same values as montane plants. During the warmest 2005-2015 period, growth became contingent on summer precipitation and began to decrease across all populations, likely due to an increasing water shortage in dense monospecific stands. Warming releases plants from cold limitations but induces water shortage. Rumex alpinus exceeds its thermal optimum and becomes water-limited as the climate warms. Our results suggest that warming-induced responses in alpine plants will not be onesided shifts to higher growth and reproduction, but rather multidimensional and spatiotemporally variable.

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Some (do not) like it hot: shrub growth is hampered by heat and drought at the alpine treeline in recent decades

Cited by 25 publications

References 77 publications

Climate warming drives Himalayan alpine plant growth and recruitment dynamics

Climate warming drives Himalayan alpine plant growth and recruitment dynamics

Unexpected Vulnerability to High Temperature in the Mediterranean Alpine Shrub Erysimum scoparium (Brouss. ex Willd.) Wettst

Alpine plant growth and reproduction dynamics in a warmer world

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