Spatiotemporal dynamics of forest-tundra communities in the polar urals

Abstract

The spatiotemporal dynamics of forest-tundra communities in the 20th century have been studied in the timberline ecotone of the Polar Urals. Maps reflecting the distribution of different types of forest-tundra communities have been made, and data on the morphological and age structure of tree stands have been obtained for three time sections (the mid-1910s, 1960s, and 2000s). They show that open and closed forests have markedly expanded due to natural afforestation of the tundra and increase in the density and productivity of existing forest stands. The unidirectional pattern of plant community transition (from the tundra to closed forests) and meteorological data provide evidence that this transition has been conditioned by climate warming and increasing humidity recorded during the past 90 years.

Climate Warming and the Recent Treeline Shift in the European Alps: The Role of Geomorphological Factors in High-Altitude Sites

“…In other studies, the treeline responses to climate were recorded mostly as an increase in forest density at the treeline (Klasner 2002;Mazepa 2005;Shiyatov et al 2005). In both cases, in the European Alps the forest dynamics at the treeline have also been influenced by the constant decline of pastoralism and the related human activities due to the land abandonment since the Industrial Revolution (1850), making it difficult to disentangle climate influence and human impacts (Motta and Nola 2001).…”

Current vegetation dynamics of the “forest-mountain tundra” ecotones of Lake Baikal coastal ranges

“…It is appropriate to tell due to this fact that similar spa-tio-temporal variations in the structure of plant communities in ecotones "forest-mountain tundra" are appropriate as well for some territories of Ural mountain system [3,4]. …”

“…The problems of change of forest upper boundary in different environmental zones attract greater attention while studying indicative role of long-living plant species responding to climate changes for centuries [1][2][3][4]. There are different interpretations in definition of forest boundary.…”

A klímaváltozás emberi jogi aspektusai

“…The treeline is predicted to shift upward by several hundred metres (Badeck et al, 2001). There is evidence that this process has already begun in Scandinavia (Kullman, 2002), the Ural Mountains (Shiyatov et al, 2005), West Carpathians (Mindas et al, 2000) and the Mediterranean (Peñuelas and Boada, 2003;Camarero and Gutiérrez, 2004). These changes, together with the effect of abandonment of traditional alpine pastures, will restrict the alpine zone to higher elevations Grace et al, 2002;Dirnböck et al, 2003;Dullinger et al, 2004), severely threatening nival flora 2 (Gottfried et al, 2002).…”

“…Forest area is expected to expand in the north (Kljuev, 2001;MNRRF, 2003;Shiyatov et al, 2005), decreasing the current tundra area by 2100 (White et al, 2000), but contract in the south (Metzger et al, 2004). Native conifers are likely to be replaced by deciduous trees in western and central Europe (Maracchi et al, 2005;Koca et al, 2006).…”