alpine plant
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Author(s):  
Courtney Collins ◽  
Sarah Elmendorf ◽  
Jane Smith ◽  
Lauren Shoemaker ◽  
Megan Szojka ◽  
...  

Global change is altering patterns of community assembly, with net outcomes dependent on species’ responses to the environment, both directly and mediated through biotic interactions. Here, we assess alpine plant community responses in a 15-year factorial nitrogen addition, warming and snow manipulation experiment. We used a dynamic competition model to estimate the density-dependent and independent processes underlying changes in species-group abundances over time. Density-dependent shifts in competitive interactions drove long-term changes in abundance of species-groups under global change. Density-independent processes were important when counteracting environmental drivers limited the growth response of the dominant species. Furthermore, competitive interactions shifted with environmental change, primarily with nitrogen, and drove non-linear abundance responses across environmental gradients. Our results highlight that global change can either reshuffle species hierarchies or further favor already dominant species; predicting which outcome will occur requires incorporating both density-dependent and independent mechanisms and how they interact across multiple global change factors.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 2719
Author(s):  
Emmanuella A. Kwaku ◽  
Shikui Dong ◽  
Hao Shen ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Wei Sha ◽  
...  

The ability of fragile ecosystems of alpine regions to adapt and thrive under warming and nitrogen deposition is a pressing conservation concern. The lack of information on how these ecosystems respond to the combined impacts of elevated levels of nitrogen and a warming climate limits the sustainable management approaches of alpine grasslands. In this study, we experimented using a completely random blocked design to examine the effects of warming and nitrogen deposition on the aboveground biomass and diversity of alpine grassland plant communities. The experiment was carried out from 2015 to 2018 in four vegetation types, e.g., alpine desert, alpine desert steppe, alpine marsh, and alpine salinised meadow, in the Aerjin Mountain Nature Reserve (AMNR) on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP). We found that W (warming) and WN (warming plus N deposition) treatment significantly increased the aboveground biomass of all the vegetation types (p < 0.05) in 2018. However, W and WN treatment only significantly increased the Shannon diversity of salinised meadows in 2018 and had no significant effect on the Shannon diversity of other vegetation types. Such results suggested that long-term nitrogen deposition and warming can consistently stimulate biomass accumulation of the alpine plant communities. Compared with other vegetation types, the diversity of alpine salinised meadows are generally more susceptible to long-term warming and warming combined with N deposition. Warming accounts many of such variabilities, while short-term N deposition alone may not significantly have an evident effect on the productivity and diversity of alpine grasslands. Our findings suggested that the effects of short-term (≤4 years) N deposition on alpine vegetation productivity and diversity were minimal, while long-term warming (>4 years) will be much more favourable for alpine vegetation.


2021 ◽  
pp. e01954
Author(s):  
Lucas Berio Fortini ◽  
Paul D. Krushelnycky ◽  
Donald R. Drake ◽  
Forest Starr ◽  
Kim Starr ◽  
...  

Ecosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katariina E. M. Vuorinen ◽  
Gunnar Austrheim ◽  
Atle Mysterud ◽  
Ragnhild Gya ◽  
Vigdis Vandvik ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-191
Author(s):  
Paul M. Catling ◽  
Brenda Kostiuk ◽  
Jeffrey H. Skevington

Alaska Wild Rhubarb (Koenigia alaskana var. glabrescens; Polygonaceae) is a native Arctic, subarctic, and alpine plant of northwestern North America. Although the plant has some economic and ecological importance, its biology is poorly known. At 11 sites in the northeast corner of its range in Northwest Territories, we found that 87% of its floral visitors were flies, mostly Syrphidae, a diverse family known to be important pollinators. Insects visiting consecutive flowers on different plants and, thus, likely effecting pollination were also flies (78.6%) and also mostly Syrphidae (72.7%) followed by Hymenoptera (20%). Although syrphids were the dominant potential pollinators at most sites, there was some variation among sites. Our results provide quantitative support for pollinator diversity and the major role of Syrphidae in pollination of Alaska Wild Rhubarb. We suggest that pollination is not a limiting factor in this plant’s spread, nor its rare and local occurrence and restricted distribution, because the majority of its pollinators are widespread.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Garcés-Pastor ◽  
Eric Coissac ◽  
Sebastien Lavergne ◽  
Christoph Schwoerer ◽  
Jean-Paul Theurillat ◽  
...  

Abstract Alpine areas are well known biodiversity hotspots, but their future may be threatened by expanding forest and changing human land use. Here, we reconstructed past vegetation, climate, and livestock over the past ~ 12,000 years from Lake Sulsseewli (European Alps), based on sedimentary ancient DNA, pollen, spores, chironomids, and microcharcoal. We assembled a highly-complete local DNA reference library (PhyloAlps, 3,923 plant species), and used this to obtain an exceptionally rich sedaDNA record of 366 plant taxa. The vegetation mainly responded to temperature during the first half of the Holocene, while human activity drove changes from 6 ka onwards. Land-use shifted from episodic grazing (Neolithic, Bronze Age) to agropastoral intensification (Medieval Age). This prompted a coexistence of species typically found at different elevational belts, thereby increasing plant richness to levels that characterise present-day alpine diversity. Our results indicate that traditional agropastoral activities should be maintained to prevent reforestation and preserve alpine plant biodiversity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 195-199
Author(s):  
Abbas Gholipour

Botanical explorations in the alpine zone of the Shahvar and Shah Kouh Mountains from Semnan and Golestan Provinces (northeastern Iran) led to the collection of interesting specimens of the genus Silene L. (Caryophyllaceae). Taxonomic study of these plants and comparison with determined plant specimens showed that the specimens belong to an unknown species. I describe it as S. aminiradii Gholipour, belonging to section Auriculatae (Boiss.) Schischk. from northeastern Iran. The new species is compared with S. lucida Chowdhuri and S. crispans Litv. as the most similar species. Silene aminiradii is a caespitose perennial alpine gynodioecious plant with prostrate stems covered with dense, retrorsely simple hairs. The distribution, ecological features, reproductive phenology, and photos of S. aminiradii are presented.


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