Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Ecological responses of plant species and communities to climate warming: upward shift or range filling processes?

  • Published:
Climatic Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The fate of alpine species in response to climate warming is still unclear. We analyze effects of climate warming on the composition of alpine plants communities and unravel the range filling of communities within a belt from long-term true upward shift processes. In the European Alps we re-sampled in 2003 the vegetation at sites studied in 1953 and analyzed the changes at intra- and inter-community level. Since 1953 all communities experienced a high species turnover, leading to an overall increase in species richness as new species exceeded species losses. The dominant species mainly declined allowing the potential expansion of competitors and/or of new species. The main recruitment sources are neighbor communities within the same elevation belt performing biotic exchanges with other plant communities in the same altitudinal belts. The changes of species distribution curves with elevation emphasized that more than half of the most widespread persisting species exhibited downward shifts instead of upward shifts. Upward shifts from lower elevation belts and of nonnative species were very limited. One third of the persisting species declined and could be used as a proxy to measure the extinction debt. Therefore the fate of plant communities will depend on the ability of the original species to persist and fill the available ecological gaps. Species persistence may be crucial in developing adaptation and environmental protection strategies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Birks JHB, Willis KJ (2008) Alpines, trees, and refugia in Europe. Plant Ecol Divers 1(2):147–160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breshears DD, Huxman TE, Adams HD et al (2008) Vegetation synchronously leans upslope as climate warms. PNAS 105:11591–11592

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cannone N, Gerdol R (2003) Vegetation as an ecological indicator of surface instability in rock glaciers. Arct Antarct Alp Res 35:384–390

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cannone N, Sgorbati S, Guglielmin M (2007) Unexpected impacts of climate change on alpine vegetation. Front Ecol Environ 5(7):360–365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cannone N, Diolaiuti G, Guglielmin M, Smiraglia C (2008) Accelerating climate change impacts on alpine glacier forefield ecosystems in the European Alps. Ecol Appl 18:637–648

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cannone N, Lewkowicz AG, Guglielmin M (2010) Vegetation colonization of permafrost-related landslides, Ellesmere Island, Canadian High Arctic. J Geophys Res 115, G04020

    Google Scholar 

  • Chao A, Chazdon RL, Colwell RK, Shen TJ (2005) A new statistical approach for assessing similarity of species composition with incidence and abundance data. Ecol Lett 8:148–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dirnböck T, Essl F, Rabitsch W (2011) Disproportional risk for habitat loss of high-altitude endemic species under climate change. Glob Chang Biol 17:990–996

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dullinger S, Gattringer A, Thuiller W et al (2012a) Extinction debt of high-mountain plants under twenty-first-century climate change. Nat Clim Chang 2:619–622

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dullinger S, Willner W, Plutzar C et al (2012b) Post-glacial migration lag restricts range filling of plants in the European Alps. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 21:829–840

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elmendorf SC, Henry GHR, Hollister RD et al (2012) Global assessment of experimental climate warming on tundra vegetation: heterogeneity over space and time. Ecol Lett 15:164–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engler R, Randin CF, Thuiller W et al (2011) 21st century climate change threatens mountain flora unequally across Europe. Glob Chang Biol 17:2330–2341

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher M, Stöcklin J (1997) Local extinctions of plants in remnants of extensively used calcareous grasslands 1950–1985. Conserv Biol 11(3):727–737

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gehrig-Fasel J, Guisan A, Zimmermann NE (2007) Tree line shifts in the Swiss Alps: climate change or land abandonment? J Veg Sci 18:571–582

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giacomini V, Pignatti S (1955) Flora e vegetazione dell’alta valle del Braulio con speciale riferimento ai pascoli di altitudine. Mem Soc Ital Sci Nat 11:47–238

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottfried M, Pauli H, Futschik A et al (2012) Continent-wide response of mountain vegetation to climate change. Nat Clim Chang 2:111–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holzinger B, Hülber K, Camenisch M, Grabherr G (2008) Changes in plant species richness over the last century in the eastern Swiss Alps: elevational gradient, bedrock effects and migration rates. Plant Ecol 195:179–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson ST, Sax DF (2009) Balancing biodiversity in a changing environment: extinction debt, immigration credit and species turnover. Trends Ecol Evol 25(3):153–160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller F, Goyette S, Beniston M (2005) Sensitivity analysis of snow cover to climate change scenarios and their impact on plant habitats in alpine terrain. Clim Chang 72:299–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly AE, Goulden ML (2008) Rapid shifts in plant distribution with recent climate change. PNAS 105(33):11823–11826

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kullman L (2010) Alpine flora dynamics: a critical review of responses to climate change in the Swedish Scandes since the early 1950s. Nord J Bot 28:398–408

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lauber K, Wagner G (1998) Flora helvetica. Verlag Paul Hapt Ed, Berne, p 1614

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenoir J, Gégout JC, Marquet PA et al (2008) A significant upward shift in plant species optimum elevation during the 20th century. Science 320:1768–1771

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lenoir J, Gégout JC, Guisan A et al (2010) Going against the flow: potential mechanisms for unexpected downslope range shifts in a warming climate. Ecography 33:295–303

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenoir J, Graae BJ, Aarrestad PA et al (2013) Local temperatures inferred from plant communities suggest strong spatial buffering of climate warming across Northern Europe. Glob Chang Biol 19:1470–1481

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maggini R, Lehmann A, Kery M et al (2011) Are Swiss birds tracking climate change? Detecting elevational shifts using response curve shapes. Ecol Model 222:21–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magurran AE (2004) Measuring biological diversity. Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Pauchard A, Kueffer C, Dietz H et al (2009) Ain’t no mountain high enough: plant invasions reaching new elevations. Front Ecol Environ 7:479–486

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pauli H, Gottfried M, Reiter K et al (2007) Signals of range expansions and contractions of vascular plants in the high Alps: observations (1994–2004) at the GLORIA* master site Schrankogel, Tyrol, Austria. Glob Chang Biol 13:147–156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pignatti S (1982) Flora d’Italia. Three volumes. Edagricole, Bologna

    Google Scholar 

  • Randin CF, Engler R, Normand S et al (2009) Climate change and plant distribution: local models predict high-elevation persistence. Glob Chang Biol 15:1557–1569

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ross LC, Woodin SJ, Hester A et al (2010) How important is plot relocation accuracy when interpreting re-visitation studies of vegetation change? Plant Ecol Divers 3:1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scherrer D, Körner C (2011) Topographically controlled thermal-habitat differentiation buffers alpine plant diversity against climate warming. J Biogeogr 38:406–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schöb C, Kammer PM, Choler P, Veit H (2009) Small-scale plant species distribution in snowbeds and its sensitivity to climate change. Plant Ecol 200:91–104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ter Braak CJF, Smilauer P (1998) CANOCO. Reference manual and user’s guide to CANOCO for windows. Software for canonical community ordination (ver. 4). Centre for Biometry, Wageningen

    Google Scholar 

  • Theurillat JP, Guisan A (2001) Potential impact of climate change on vegetation in the European Alps: a review. Clim Chang 50:77–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vetaas OR (2002) Realized and potential climate niches: a comparison of four Rhododendron tree species. J Biogeogr 29:545–554

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walther G-R, Beißner S, Burga CA (2005) Trends in the upward shift of alpine plants. J Veg Sci 16:541–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Westhoff V, van der Maarel E (1973). The Braun-Blanquet approach. In: Whittaker RH (ed.) Handbook of vegeta-tion science, part 5. Classification and ordination of communities. Junk, The Hague, pp 617–726

  • Wilhalm T, Niklfeld H, Gutermann W (2006) Katalog der Gefaesspflanzen Suedtirols. Folio Verl, Wien/Bozen

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Prof. Georg Grabherr, Prof. Mauro Guglielmin, Prof. Renato Gerdol and Prof. Alessandro Chiarucci for their comments on a former version of this manuscript. We wish to thank Stelvio National Park for logistical support. Finally, we wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments allowing to improve our paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences, Insubria University, Via Valleggio, 11, 22100, Como, CO, Italy

    Nicoletta Cannone

  2. Department of Environmental Biology, University Roma “La Sapienza”, 00165, Rome, Italy

    Sandro Pignatti

Authors
  1. Nicoletta Cannone
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sandro Pignatti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicoletta Cannone.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Fig. 1

Comparison of medians, quartiles and ranges of the Bray Curtis Distances between all iterative combinations of a) original to replicate plots (Or-Repl) and b) replicate plots (Between-Repl) for all selected vegetation communities, according to the procedure adopted by Ross et al. (2010). (DOCX 20 kb)

Fig. 2

Multivariate analysis (DCA) carried out at inter-community level analyzing the fully comparable relevés (1953 vs 2003) showing the species plot (left side) and the relevés plot (right side). Legend: OD: Pioneer community (n = 8); LA: early successional community (n = 10); SH: late melting snowbed (n = 28); AP: early melting snowbed (n = 24); CC: alpine grasslands (n = 18); LP: alpine dwarf shrubs (n = 12). (DOCX 546 kb)

Fig. 3

Biplot (species and sites) of the multivariate analysis (DCA) carried out analyzing the fully comparable relevés (1953 vs 2003) of pioneer (n = 4 for each year) and the early successional (n = 5 for each year) vegetation. Legend: square = pioneer vegetation; circle = early successional vegetation; white = 1953 data; grey = 2003 data. (DOCX 255 kb)

Fig. 4

Biplot (species and sites) of the multivariate analysis (DCA) carried out analyzing the fully comparable relevés (1953 vs 2003) of snowbeds (n = 26 for each year). Legend: white = 1953 data; grey = 2003 data. (DOCX 247 kb)

Fig. 5

Biplot (species and sites) of the multivariate analysis (DCA) carried out analyzing the fully comparable relevés (1953 vs 2003) of grasslands (n = 9 for each year) and alpine dwarf shrubs (n = 6 for each year). Legend: circles = grasslands; squares = alpine dwarf shrubs; white = 1953 data; grey = 2003 data. (DOCX 437 kb)

Table 1

(DOCX 14 kb)

Table 2

(DOCX 15 kb)

Table 3

(DOCX 15 kb)

Table 4

(DOCX 21 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cannone, N., Pignatti, S. Ecological responses of plant species and communities to climate warming: upward shift or range filling processes?. Climatic Change 123, 201–214 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-014-1065-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-014-1065-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation