scholarly journals Plant Phenology Dynamics and Pollination Networks in Summits of the High Tropical Andes: A Baseline for Monitoring Climate Change Impacts

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roxibell C. Pelayo ◽  
Luis D. Llambí ◽  
Luis E. Gámez ◽  
Yeni C. Barrios ◽  
Lirey A. Ramirez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Species Composition ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Elevation Gradient ◽  
Plant Phenology ◽  
Sampling Effort ◽  
Alpine Plant ◽  
Alpine Plant Communities ◽  
Plant Pollinator

Analyzing plant phenology and plant–animal interaction networks can provide sensitive mechanistic indicators to understand the response of alpine plant communities to climate change. However, monitoring data to analyze these processes is scarce in alpine ecosystems, particularly in the highland tropics. The Andean páramos constitute the coldest biodiversity hotspot on Earth, and their species and ecosystems are among the most exposed and vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Here, we analyze for the first time baseline data for monitoring plant phenological dynamics and plant–pollinator networks along an elevation gradient between 4,200 and 4,600 m asl in three mountain summits of the Venezuelan Andes, which are part of the GLORIA monitoring network. We estimated the presence and density of plants with flowers in all the summits and in permanent plots, every month for 1 year. Additionally, we identified pollinators. We calculated a phenological overlap index between species. We summarized the plant–pollinator interactions as a bipartite matrix and represented a quantitative plant–pollinator network, calculating structural properties (grade, connectance, nestedness, and specialization). We also evaluated whether the overall network structure was influenced by differences in sampling effort, changes in species composition between summits, and phenology of the plant species. Finally, we characterized the pollination syndrome of all species. Flowering showed a marked seasonality, with a peak toward the end of the wet season. The overall phenological overlap index was low (0.32), suggesting little synchrony in flowering among species. Species richness of both plants and pollinators decreased along the elevation gradient. Flies, bumblebees, and hummingbirds were the most frequent pollinators in the network, while entomophily and anemophily were the prevailing pollination syndromes. The interaction network in all summits showed high connectance values, significant specialization (H2), and low nestedness. We did not find a significant effect of sampling effort, summit plant species composition, or plant phenology on network structure. Our results indicate that these high tropical alpine plant communities and their plant-pollination networks could be particularly vulnerable to the loss of species in climate change scenarios, given their low species richness and functional redundancy coupled with a high degree of specialization and endemism.

scholarly journals Snowbeds are more affected than other subalpine-alpine plant communities by climate change in the Swiss Alps

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (19) ◽  
pp. 6969-6982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magalì Matteodo ◽  
Klaus Ammann ◽  
Eric Pascal Verrecchia ◽  
Pascal Vittoz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Swiss Alps ◽  
Alpine Plant ◽  
Alpine Plant Communities

scholarly journals Changes in plant composition and diversity in an Alpine heath and meadow after 18 years of experimental warming

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juha Alatalo ◽  
Mohammad Bagher Erfanian ◽  
Ulf Molau ◽  
Shengbin Chen ◽  
Yang Bai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Composition ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Phylogenetic Diversity ◽  
Dominant Species ◽  
Experimental Warming ◽  
Alpine Plant ◽  
Arctic Ecosystems ◽  
Alpine Plant Communities ◽  
The Impact

Background and aim Global warming is expected to have large impacts on high alpine and Arctic ecosystems in future. Here we report the effects of 18 years of experimental warming on two contrasting high alpine plant communities in subarctic Sweden.Methods Using open-top chambers (OTCs), we analysed the effects of long-term passive experimental warming on two high alpine plant communities, a species- and nutrient-poor heath and a more nutrient- and species-rich mesic meadow. We determined the impact on species composition, species diversity (at the level of rare, frequent and dominant species in each community), and phylogenetic and functional diversity.Key results Long-term warming drove differentiation in the species composition in both heath and meadow vegetation, with the warmed plots having distinctly different species composition in 2013 compared with 1995. In addition, variability in species composition increased in the meadow, while it decreased in the heath. The long-term warming had a significant negative effect on the three orders of phylogenetic Hill diversity in the meadow. There was a similar tendency in the heath, but only the phylogenetic diversity of dominant species was significantly affected. Long-term warming caused a reduction in graminoids in the heath, while deciduous shrubs increased. In the meadow, cushion-forming plants showed an increase in abundance from 2001 to 2013 in the warmed plots. Conclusions Responses in species and phylogenetic diversity to experimental warming varied over both time (medium vs long-term responses) and space (i.e. between the two neighbouring plant communities heath and meadow). The meadow community was more negatively affected in terms of species and phylogenetic diversity than the heath community. A potential driver for the changes in the meadow may be decreased soil moisture caused by the long-term warming.

scholarly journals Growth‐competition‐herbivore resistance trade‐offs and the responses of alpine plant communities to climate change

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 1693-1703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loïc Pellissier ◽  
Patrice Descombes ◽  
Oskar Hagen ◽  
Loïc Chalmandrier ◽  
Gaétan Glauser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Alpine Plant ◽  
Herbivore Resistance ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Alpine Plant Communities

scholarly journals Genetic diversity in widespread species is not congruent with species richness in alpine plant communities

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 1439-1448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Taberlet ◽  
Niklaus E. Zimmermann ◽  
Thorsten Englisch ◽  
Andreas Tribsch ◽  
Rolf Holderegger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Alpine Plant ◽  
Widespread Species ◽  
Alpine Plant Communities

scholarly journals Community turnover by composition and climatic affinity across scales in an alpine system

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian V. Smithers ◽  
Meagan F. Oldfather ◽  
Michael J. Koontz ◽  
Jim Bishop ◽  
Catie Bishop ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Alpine Plant ◽  
Elevation Gradients ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Community Turnover ◽  
Alpine Plant Communities

ABSTRACTPremise of the studyExamining community turnover across climate gradients at multiple scales is vital to understanding biogeographic response to climate change. This approach is especially important for alpine plants in which the relative roles of topographic complexity and non-climatic or stochastic factors vary across spatial scales.MethodsWe examined the structure of alpine plant communities across elevation gradients in the White Mountains, California. Using community climatic niche means (CCNMs) and measures of community dissimilarity, we explored the relationship between community composition and elevation gradients at three scales: the mountain range, individual peaks, and within elevation contours.Key ResultsAt the mountain range scale, community turnover and CCNMs showed strongly significant relationships with elevation, with an increase in the abundance of cooler and wetter-adapted species at higher elevations. At the scale of a single peaks, we found weak and inconsistent relationships between CCNMs and elevation, but variation in community composition explained by elevation increased. Within the elevation contours, the range of CCNMs was weakly positively correlated with turnover in species identity, likely driven by microclimate and other site-specific factors.ConclusionsOur results suggest that there is strong environmental sorting of alpine plant communities at broad scales, but microclimatic and site-specific, non-climatic factors together shape community turnover at finer scales. In the context of climate change, our results imply that community-climate relationships are scale-dependent, and predictions of local alpine plant range shifts are limited by a lack of topoclimatic and habitat information.

scholarly journals Disentangling the Ecological Determinants of Species and Functional Trait Diversity in Herb-Layer Plant Communities in European Temperate Forests

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 552
Author(s):  
Janez Kermavnar ◽  
Lado Kutnar ◽  
Aleksander Marinšek
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Species Composition ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Forest Stand ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Herb Layer ◽  
Bud Bank ◽  
Tree Species Composition ◽  
Stand Characteristics

Forest herb-layer vegetation responds sensitively to environmental conditions. This paper compares drivers of both taxonomic, i.e., species richness, cover and evenness, and functional herb-layer diversity, i.e., the diversity of clonal, bud bank and leaf-height-seed plant traits. We investigated the dependence of herb-layer diversity on ecological determinants related to soil properties, climatic parameters, forest stand characteristics, and topographic and abiotic and biotic factors associated with forest floor structure. The study was conducted in different forest types in Slovenia, using vegetation and environmental data from 50 monitoring plots (400 m2 each) belonging to the ICP Forests Level I and II network. The main objective was to first identify significant ecological predictors and then quantify their relative importance. Species richness was strongly determined by forest stand characteristics, such as richness of the shrub layer, tree layer shade-casting ability as a proxy for light availability and tree species composition. It showed a clear positive relation to soil pH. Variation in herb-layer cover was also best explained by forest stand characteristics and, to a lesser extent, by structural factors such as moss cover. Species evenness was associated with tree species composition, shrub layer cover and soil pH. Various ecological determinants were decisive for the diversity of below-ground traits, i.e., clonal and bud bank traits. For these two trait groups we observed a substantial climatic signal that was completely absent for taxonomy-based measures of diversity. In contrast, above-ground leaf-height-seed (LHS) traits were driven exclusively by soil reaction and nitrogen availability. In synthesis, local stand characteristics and soil properties acted as the main controlling factors for both species and trait diversity in herb-layer communities across Slovenia, confirming many previous studies. Our findings suggest that the taxonomic and functional facets of herb-layer vegetation are mainly influenced by a similar set of ecological determinants. However, their relative importance varies among individual taxonomy- and functional trait-based diversity measures. Integrating multi-faceted approaches can provide complementary information on patterns of herb-layer diversity in European forest plant communities.

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