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Warming-induced upslope advance of subalpine forest is severely limited by geomorphic processes.


ABSTRACT: Forests are expected to expand into alpine areas because of climate warming, causing land-cover change and fragmentation of alpine habitats. However, this expansion will only occur if the present upper treeline is limited by low-growing season temperatures that reduce plant growth. This temperature limitation has not been quantified at a landscape scale. Here, we show that temperature alone cannot realistically explain high-elevation tree cover over a >100-km(2) area in the Canadian Rockies and that geologic/geomorphic processes are fundamental to understanding the heterogeneous landscape distribution of trees. Furthermore, upslope tree advance in a warmer scenario will be severely limited by availability of sites with adequate geomorphic/topographic characteristics. Our results imply that landscape-to-regional scale projections of warming-induced, high-elevation forest advance into alpine areas should not be based solely on temperature-sensitive, site-specific upper-treeline studies but also on geomorphic processes that control tree occurrence at long (centuries/millennia) timescales.

SUBMITTER: Macias-Fauria M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3657765 | biostudies-literature | 2013 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Warming-induced upslope advance of subalpine forest is severely limited by geomorphic processes.

Macias-Fauria Marc M   Johnson Edward A EA  

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20130408 20


Forests are expected to expand into alpine areas because of climate warming, causing land-cover change and fragmentation of alpine habitats. However, this expansion will only occur if the present upper treeline is limited by low-growing season temperatures that reduce plant growth. This temperature limitation has not been quantified at a landscape scale. Here, we show that temperature alone cannot realistically explain high-elevation tree cover over a >100-km(2) area in the Canadian Rockies and  ...[more]

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