Warming-induced upslope advance of subalpine forest is severely limited by geomorphic processes
- 8 April 2013
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 110 (20), 8117-8122
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221278110
Abstract
Forests are expected to expand into alpine areas because of climate warming, causing land-cover change and fragmentation of alpine habitats. However, this expansion will only occur if the present upper treeline is limited by low-growing season temperatures that reduce plant growth. This temperature limitation has not been quantified at a landscape scale. Here, we show that temperature alone cannot realistically explain high-elevation tree cover over a >100-km(2) area in the Canadian Rockies and that geologic/geomorphic processes are fundamental to understanding the heterogeneous landscape distribution of trees. Furthermore, upslope tree advance in a warmer scenario will be severely limited by availability of sites with adequate geomorphic/topographic characteristics. Our results imply that landscape-to-regional scale projections of warming-induced, high-elevation forest advance into alpine areas should not be based solely on temperature-sensitive, site-specific upper-treeline studies but also on geomorphic processes that control tree occurrence at long (centuries/millennia) timescales.Keywords
This publication has 25 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mountain Treelines: A Roadmap for Research OrientationArctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 2011
- Definition of the potential treeline in the European Alps and its benefit for sustainability monitoringEcological Indicators, 2011
- Treeline proximity alters an alpine plant–herbivore interactionOecologia, 2010
- BIOMOD – a platform for ensemble forecasting of species distributionsEcography, 2009
- Growth and carbon relations of tree line forming conifers at constant vs. variable low temperaturesJournal of Ecology, 2008
- Influences of Geomorphology and Geology on Alpine Treeline in the American West—More Important than Climatic Influences?Physical Geography, 2007
- Sensitivity and response of northern hemisphere altitudinal and polar treelines to environmental change at landscape and local scalesGlobal Ecology and Biogeography, 2005
- A world‐wide study of high altitude treeline temperaturesJournal of Biogeography, 2004
- A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systemsNature, 2003
- A re-assessment of high elevation treeline positions and their explanationOecologia, 1998