A century of tree line changes in sub-Arctic Sweden shows local and regional variability and only a minor influence of 20th century climate warming
Summary (1 min read)
A century of tree line changes in sub-Arctic Sweden shows local and regional
- Twentieth century tree line changes in Swedish sub-Arctic Abstract 1 Models project that climate warming will cause the treeline to move to higher 2 elevations in alpine areas and more northerly latitudes in Arctic environments, also known as Running head.
- The lack of 446 recent tree (>2 m) establishment and the browsing scars documented in the tree rings 447 indicated that, in addition to moth herbivory, reindeer browsing is still a controlling 448 factor at these sites (Fig. 5, Table 4).
Tables
- Previous field studies on observed treeline shifts and their presumed causes in the Torneträsk area of sub-Arctic Sweden.
- Browsing damage was classified visually and for five sites also by dendrochronological analysis (the values listed in brackets).
- So as not to bias the results, Mount Nuolja (site S3), for which the two treeline sites were not randomly selected, was not included in the calculation of the mean elevational shift of the treeline in the Torneträsk area.
- Pearson correlation coefficients and R2-values (the proportion of explained variance in documented treeline shifts) obtained by forward selection of the different variables are listed at the bottom of the table.
Figure legends
- The Torneträsk study area in sub-Arctic Sweden.
- The locations of the historical transects and photo points that have been revisited to study changes in the tree line ecotone are indicated.
- The statistically-determined 30%-tree cover isoline is plotted in yellow.
- Upper photo on the left: E. Persson, bottom left: B. Mesch; upper and bottom right: R. Van Bogaert.
- Fig. 8. Tree (>2 m) establishment at the Torneträsk tree line versus summer (June- August) temperature and reindeer population numbers for the period 1800-2000.
Figures
- Historical transects and photo points that have been revisited to study changes in the tree line ecotone are indicated.
- The statistically-determined 30% tree-cover isoline is plotted in yellow.
- Upper photo: E. Persson, lower photo: S. Johnsson.
- Upper photo on the left: E. Persson, bottom left: B. Mesch; upper and bottom right: R. Van Bogaert. relation to disturbance (b) and summer temperature (c) for the period 1964-2006.
- August) temperature and reindeer population numbers for the period 1800-2000.
Did you find this useful? Give us your feedback
Citations
567 citations
337 citations
292 citations
147 citations
138 citations
References
59 citations
"A century of tree line changes in s..." refers methods in this paper
...This boundary was set to 30% tree-cover in a convention used by most other tree line studies (Rees et al., 2002)....
[...]
55 citations
55 citations
"A century of tree line changes in s..." refers background in this paper
...Unfortunately, this information is often not available (Moen et al., 2008) and is a major weakness in studies dealing with range migrations of plant species....
[...]
47 citations
"A century of tree line changes in s..." refers background in this paper
...However, in many circumpolar and high-elevational areas the position of the tree line has not changed (Masek, 2001; Holtmeier et al., 2003; Payette, 2007; Van Bogaert et al., 2007) or has even retreated (Vlassova, 2002; Dalen & Hofgaard, 2005; Kullman, 2005; Cherosov et al., 2010)....
[...]
40 citations
"A century of tree line changes in s..." refers background in this paper
...Although reindeer have always been part of the birch ecosystem, their impact on the vegetation should be evaluated in terms of population densities (Helle, 2001)....
[...]
...Several studies have shown that the lack of recovery of forests defoliated by moths is the product of an interaction between damage due to moth outbreaks and reindeer grazing (Kallio & Lehtonen, 1973; Helle, 2001; Tenow et al., 2005)....
[...]