Colonization and extinction lags drive non‐linear responses to warming in mountain plant communities across the Northern Hemisphere
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Global warming is changing plant communities due to the arrival of new species from warmer regions and declining abundance of cold‐adapted species. However, experimentally testing predictions about trajectories and rates of community change is challenging because we normally lack an expectation for future community composition, and most warming experiments fail to incorporate colonization by novel species. To address these issues, we analyzed data from 44 whole‐community transplant experiments along 22 elevational gradients across the Northern Hemisphere. In these experiments, high‐elevation communities were transplanted to lower elevations to simulate warming, while also removing dispersal barriers for lower‐elevation species to establish. We quantified the extent and pace at which warmed high‐elevation communities shifted towards the taxonomic composition of lower elevation communities. High‐elevation plant communities converged towards the composition of low‐elevation communities, with higher rates under stronger experimental warming. Strong community shifts occurred in the first year after transplantation then slowed over time, such that communities remained distinct from both origin and destination control by the end of the experimental periods (3‐9 years). Changes were driven to a similar extent by both new species colonization and abundance shifts of high‐elevation species, but with substantial variation across experiments that could be partly explained by the magnitude and duration of experimental warming, plot size and functional traits. Our macroecological approach reveals that while warmed high‐elevation communities increasingly resemble communities at lower elevations today, the slow pace of taxonomic shifts implies considerable colonization and extinction lags, where a novel taxonomic composition of both low‐ and high‐elevation species could coexist for long periods of time. The important contribution of the colonizing species to community change also indicates that once dispersal barriers are overcome, warmed high‐elevation communities are vulnerable to encroachment from lower elevation species.
Source: Ecography
DOI: 10.1111/ecog.07378
Authors: Billur Bektaş, Chelsea Chisholm, Dagmar Egelkraut, Joshua Lynn, Sebastián Block, Thomas Deola, Fanny Dommanget, Brian J. Enquist, Deborah E. Goldberg, Sylvia Haider, Aud H. Halbritter, Yongtao He, Renaud Jaunatre, Anke Jentsch, Kari Klanderud, Paul Kardol, Susanne Lachmuth, Gregory Loucougaray, Tamara Münkemüller, Georg Niedrist, Hanna Nomoto, Lorah Seltzer, Joachim Paul Töpper, Lisa J. Rew, Tim Seipel, Manzoor A. Shah, Richard James Telford, Tom W.N. Walker, Shiping Wang, David A. Wardle, Peter Wolff, Yan Yang, Vigdis Vandvik, Jake M. Alexander
Institutions: ETH Zurich, Institute of Integrative Biology, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, University of Bergen, University of Manchester, Yale University, University of Bayreuth, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, Université Grenoble Alpes, University of Arizona, Santa Fe Institute, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Eurac Research, University of Neuchâtel, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Montana State University, University of Kashmir, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Umeå University, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment
Language: English
Subfield: Nature and Landscape Conservation
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Life on land, Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,457
Funder: Agence Nationale de la Recherche
OpenAlex ID: W4403993732