Journal ArticleDOI
Large climate change, large effect? Vegetation changes over the past century in the European High Arctic
Jutta Kapfer,John-Arvid Grytnes +1 more
TLDR
In this article, the authors compared species co-occurrences over time to study changes in species composition and to identify the species most likely causing these changes, and found that Polygonum viviparum, Saxifraga cernua and Alopecurus borealis have changed most in cooccurring with other species.Abstract:
Questions
Terrestrial vegetation is assumed to be highly vulnerable to climate change in the Arctic, which has experienced the highest rates of temperature increase globally over the past decades. However, long-term studies at the community scale are rare, particularly for the European High Arctic. We ask: (1) has Arctic vegetation changed over the past century; (2) can observed changes be related to recent climate change; and (3) do observed changes in vegetation prevail for specific species or species functional groups?
Location
The Svalbard Archipelago, High Arctic Norway.
Methods
In 2009 we resurveyed three plant sociological studies up to 85 yrs after the first surveys. Vegetation data were recorded from 1-m2 non-permanently marked plots, and soil pH was measured. We applied restricted permutation tests to evaluate whether observed changes in vegetation (species richness, occurrence frequency, coverage) and in soil pH were significant and independent of plant community type. We compared species co-occurrences over time to study changes in species composition and to identify the species most likely causing these changes.
Results
Total number of species and average number of species per plot has not changed, and are 75 and nine, respectively. Occurrence frequency changed significantly for 34% of the 64 species tested (11 species increased, 11 decreased). Species cover decreased significantly for 27% of the species and increased for one species. Observed changes in frequency and cover are not significantly related to species’ functional groups or species affiliated to moist or dry habitats. Polygonum viviparum, Saxifraga cernua and Alopecurus borealis have changed most in co-occurring with other species. Soil pH increased significantly from 6.4 to 6.8.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that the strong climatic warming in the High Arctic over the past decades has contributed to significant changes in the vegetation studied on Svalbard over the past 85 yrs. Internal community restructuring and the overall stability in species richness may be explained by time-delayed responses of well-established communities, and/or by a limited size of the species pool in the area.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Resurvey of historical vegetation plots: a tool for understanding long-term dynamics of plant communities
Journal ArticleDOI
The variation of vegetation greenness and underlying mechanisms in Guangdong province of China during 2001-2013 based on MODIS data.
TL;DR: The results suggest that afforestation plays a dominant role in increasing vegetation cover/greenness in Guangdong whereas the effects of land use/cover change on vegetation growth are subject to climatic conditions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Persistence and turnover in desert plant communities during a 37‐yr period of land use and climate change
TL;DR: For example, in this article, the authors measured a 500 km² landscape in the Mojave Desert, USA, three times (1979, 2008, and 2016) during 37 years to evaluate six hypotheses of community change.
Journal ArticleDOI
Drivers of inter-annual variation and long-term change in High-Arctic spider species abundances
Joseph J. Bowden,Joseph J. Bowden,Joseph J. Bowden,Oskar Liset Pryds Hansen,Oskar Liset Pryds Hansen,Kent Olsen,Niels Martin Schmidt,Toke T. Høye +7 more
TL;DR: The abundances of some species have declined during this 18-year period, in response to rising temperatures and snow depth dynamics, which affected snowmelt timing and moisture availability and continued climate change may also affect local species interactions.
Journal ArticleDOI
The influence of abiotic factors on the growth of two vascular plant species (Saxifraga oppositifolia and Salix polaris) in the High Arctic
Magdalena Opała-Owczarek,Ewa Pirożnikow,Piotr Owczarek,Wojciech Szymański,Bartłomiej Luks,Daniel Kępski,Mariusz Szymanowski,Bronisław Wojtuń,Krzysztof Migała +8 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluated the abiotic factors that influence changes in the annual growth rates of selected species of tundra plants (Saxifraga oppositifolia L. and Salix polaris Wahlenb).
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Ecological and Evolutionary Responses to Recent Climate Change
TL;DR: Range-restricted species, particularly polar and mountaintop species, show severe range contractions and have been the first groups in which entire species have gone extinct due to recent climate change.
Book
Randomization tests
TL;DR: The writer really shows how the simple words can maximize how the impression of this book is uttered directly for the readers.
Journal ArticleDOI
Responses of Arctic Tundra to Experimental and Observed Changes in Climate
TL;DR: In this article, the authors manipulated light, temperature, and nutrients in moist tussock tundra near Toolik Lake, Alaska to determine how global changes in these parameters might affect community and ecosystem processes.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate change. Increasing shrub abundance in the Arctic.
TL;DR: Evidence for a widespread increase in shrub abundance over more than 320 km of Arctic landscape during the past 50 years is presented, based on a comparison of historic and modern aerial photographs.
Journal ArticleDOI
The role of biotic interactions in shaping distributions and realised assemblages of species: implications for species distribution modelling
Mary S. Wisz,Julien Pottier,W. Daniel Kissling,Loïc Pellissier,Jonathan Lenoir,Jonathan Lenoir,Christian Damgaard,Carsten F. Dormann,Mads C. Forchhammer,John-Arvid Grytnes,Antoine Guisan,Risto K. Heikkinen,Toke T. Høye,Ingolf Kühn,Miska Luoto,Luigi Maiorano,Marie-Charlotte Nilsson,Signe Normand,Erik Öckinger,Niels Martin Schmidt,Mette Termansen,Allan Timmermann,David A. Wardle,Peter Aastrup,Jens-Christian Svenning +24 more
TL;DR: It is shown that biotic interactions have clearly left their mark on species distributions and realised assemblages of species across all spatial extents, and is called for for accelerated collection of spatially and temporally explicit species data.