念青唐古拉山南坡高寒草甸生产力对温度和降水变化的敏感性及其海拔分异

目前人们仍不清楚不同海拔高寒草地植被生长对气候变化的敏感性差异及其与最适宜海拔分布中心的关系。利用西藏当雄县念青唐古拉山南坡7个海拔梯度固定样地的高山嵩草草甸地上净初级生产力(ANPP)观测数据(2009—2013),建立了ANPP与同期遥感植被指数(MODIS NDVI)的线性回归方程。基于长时间序列的NDVI数据,利用建立的回归方程估算了研究区2000—2013年的ANPP。结合沿海拔梯度的HOBO气象站数据(2006—2013)及当雄县气象站数据(2000—2013),分析了2000—2013年该地区高寒草甸ANPP对降水和温度变化的敏感性及其随海拔的变化规律。结果表明:(1)多年平均ANPP随海拔的变化均表现为先增加后降低的单峰分布格局,最大值出现在海拔4893—4942 m,说明在海拔梯度上存在一个最适宜高寒草甸植被生长的分布中心;(2)ANPP与生长季降水量(GSP)呈正相关关系,与生长季平均气温(GST)呈负相关关系,其相关斜率的绝对值(指示ANPP的降水敏感性和温度敏感性大小)与ANPP的海拔格局具有相反的变化趋势,即在最适宜高寒草甸植被生长的海拔分布中心附近,ANPP对降水和温度变化的敏感性最低,而在远离该分布中心的较高和较低海拔,ANPP对降水和温度变化的敏感性则相对较大。研究明确了高寒草甸ANPP对降水和温度变化的敏感性随海拔的分异性及其与高寒草甸最适宜海拔分布中心的关系,这有助于理解沿海拔梯度不同水热组合环境下高寒生态系统对未来气候变化的响应模式。     

Grazing buffers the effect of climate change on the species diversity of seedlings in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau

Climate change predominated by warming over the past decades has affected plant biodiversity, distribution, and ecosystem functioning in alpine grasslands. Yet, little is known about the interactive effect of climate change and grazing on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Here, we conducted a vegetation translocation experiment (ten soil‐vegetation blocks were translocated from high‐altitudinal site 3,245 m to low‐altitudinal site 3,045 m) combined with grazing treatment in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. The results showed that (a) translocation induced effect of climate change from harsh, high‐altitudinal site to benign, low‐altitudinal site significantly promoted species richness, and density of asexual and sexual seedling, with an increase in the proportion of asexual recruitment to sexual recruitment; (b) grazing decreased the proportion of asexual seedling to sexual recruitment within community, led to a shift in the dominant plant functional groups from graminoids and legumes to forbs; and (c) grazing partly offset the increased species richness of seedling, but not seedling density, induced by climate change. These findings suggest that moderate grazing may buffer the effect of climate change on the plant community composition, and thus, functional role in alpine meadows. Further understanding the influence of climate change on grassland ecosystems needs to consider the non‐additive effect of grazing and climate change to sustainability of grassland services.     

Analysis of the vertical distribution of epiphytic lichens on Pinus nigra (Mount Olympos,Greece) along an altitudinal gradient

Epiphytic lichen vegetation was studied in 10 sites along an altitude gradient from 750 to 1510 m on NW-facing slopes of Mount Olympos, Greece to assess the main spatial heterogeneity of microhabitats affecting communities and species composition. Community structure along the gradient was studied by using multivariate techniques. The critical factor for spatial heterogeneity seems to be the height at which the lichen community develops on the tree trunks. Changes in the community structure of the epiphytic lichen vegetation were also detected along the altitudinal gradient and the altitude of 1200 m is considered to be an ecotone. A comparative study of epiphytic lichen communities on Mt. Olympos and in the Thessaloniki area revealed species indicators of air pollution.     

Warming effects on growth,production, and vegetation structure of alpine shrubs: a five-year experiment in northern Japan

Warming effects on shoot growth, production, reproductive activity, and vegetation structure of alpine shrubs were measured over 5 years in a mid-latitude alpine fellfield in northern Japan. Open-top chambers (OTC) increased the daily mean air-temperature by 1.5-2.3 degrees C throughout the growing season but the effect on soil temperature was small. Two evergreen species, Ledum palustre and Empetrum nigrum, tended to increase their annual shoot production and aboveground-mass accumulation in the OTCs, whereas flower production did not differ. Two deciduous species, Vaccinium uliginosum and Arctous alpinus, increased their flower production in the OTCs, whereas the vegetative growth and mass accumulation did not change. No significant differences in vegetative and flower production were detected in Vaccinium vitis-idaea between the OTCs and control plots. The shoot survival and growth in terms of height of most species increased in the OTCs relative to the control treatment, and the growth rate was significantly different among species. As a result, interspecific competition seemed to be accelerated in the OTCs, and the less competitive V. vitis-idaea was suppressed by other plant species. The response to the warming observed in this study was rather different from that seen in arctic and subarctic plants even within the same species, indicating that the warming effect may cause different responses between arctic and mid-latitude alpine ecosystems. We concluded that the artificial warming over 5 years accelerated the growth of a few restricted species and lead to the change in vegetation structure in the mid-latitude alpine ecosystem.     

Differences between tree species seedling and adult altitudinal distribution in mountain forests during the recent warm period (1986–2006)

Spatial fingerprints of climate change on tree species distribution are usually detected at latitudinal or altitudinal extremes (arctic or alpine tree line), where temperatures play a key role in tree species distribution. However, early detection of recent climate change effects on tree species distribution across the overall temperature gradient remains poorly explored. Within French mountain forests, we investigated altitudinal distribution differences between seedling (≤50 cm tall and >1 yr old) and adult (>8 m tall) life stages for 17 European tree taxa, encompassing the entire forest elevation range from lowlands to the subalpine vegetation belt (50–2250 m a.s.l.) and spanning the latitudinal gradient from northern temperate to southern Mediterranean forests. We simultaneously identified seedlings and adults within the same vegetation plots. These twin observations gave us the equivalent of exactly paired plots in space with seedlings reflecting a response to the studied warm period (1986–2006) and adults reflecting a response to a former and cooler period. For 13 out of 17 species, records of the mean altitude of presence at the seedling life stage are higher than that at the adult life stage. The low altitudinal distribution limit of occurrences at the seedling life stage is, on average, 29 m higher than that at the adult life stage which is significant. The high altitudinal distribution limit also shows a similar trend but which is not significant. Complementary analyses using modelling techniques and focusing on the optimum elevation (i.e. the central position inside distribution ranges) have confirmed differences between life stages altitudinal distribution. Seedlings optima are mostly higher than adults optimum, reaching, on average, a 69 m gap. This overall trend showing higher altitudinal distribution at the seedling life stage in comparison to the adult one suggests a main driver of change highly related to elevation, such as climate warming that occurs during the studied period. Other drivers of change that could play an important role across elevation or act at more specific scales are also discussed as potential contributors to explain our results.     

Ecological and evolutionary responses of an arctic plant to variation in microclimate and soil

The arctic and alpine regions are predicted to experience some of the highest rates of climate change, and the arctic vegetation is expected to be especially sensitive to such changes. Understanding the ecological and evolutionary responses of arctic plant species to changes in climate is therefore a key objective. Geothermal areas, where natural temperature gradients occur over small spatial scales, and without many of the confounding environmental factors present in latitudinal and other gradient studies, provide a natural experimental setting in which to examine the response of arctic–alpine plants to increasing temperatures. To test the ecological and evolutionary response of the circumpolar alpine bistort Persicaria vivipara to temperature, we collected plant material and soil from areas with low, intermediate and high soil temperatures and grew them at three different temperatures in a three-factorial growth chamber experiment. At higher experimental soil temperatures, sprouting was earlier and plants had more leaves. Sprouting was earlier in soil originating from intermediate temperature and plants had more leaves when grown in soil originating from low temperatures. We did not find evidence of local adaptation or genetic variation in reaction norms among plants originating from areas with low, intermediate and high soil temperature. Our findings suggest that the alpine bistort has a strong plastic response to warming, but that differences in soil temperature have not resulted in genetic differentiation. The lack of an observed evolutionary response may, for example, be due to the absence of temperature-mediated selection on P. vivipara, the low rate of sexual recombination, or high levels of gene flow balancing differences in selection. When placed within the context of other studies, we conclude that arctic–alpine plant species often show strong plastic responses to spring warming, while evidence of evolutionary responses varies among species.     

Where do the treeless tundra areas of northern highlands fit in the global biome system: toward an ecologically natural subdivision of the tundra biome

According to some treatises, arctic and alpine sub‐biomes are ecologically similar, whereas others find them highly dissimilar. Most peculiarly, large areas of northern tundra highlands fall outside of the two recent subdivisions of the tundra biome. We seek an ecologically natural resolution to this long‐standing and far‐reaching problem. We studied broad‐scale patterns in climate and vegetation along the gradient from Siberian tundra via northernmost Fennoscandia to the alpine habitats of European middle‐latitude mountains, as well as explored those patterns within Fennoscandian tundra based on climate–vegetation patterns obtained from a fine‐scale vegetation map. Our analyses reveal that ecologically meaningful January–February snow and thermal conditions differ between different types of tundra. High precipitation and mild winter temperatures prevail on middle‐latitude mountains, low precipitation and usually cold winters prevail on high‐latitude tundra, and Scandinavian mountains show intermediate conditions. Similarly, heath‐like plant communities differ clearly between middle latitude mountains (alpine) and high‐latitude tundra vegetation, including its altitudinal extension on Scandinavian mountains. Conversely, high abundance of snowbeds and large differences in the composition of dwarf shrub heaths distinguish the Scandinavian mountain tundra from its counterparts in Russia and the north Fennoscandian inland. The European tundra areas fall into three ecologically rather homogeneous categories: the arctic tundra, the oroarctic tundra of northern heights and mountains, and the genuinely alpine tundra of middle‐latitude mountains. Attempts to divide the tundra into two sub‐biomes have resulted in major discrepancies and confusions, as the oroarctic areas are included in the arctic tundra in some biogeographic maps and in the alpine tundra in others. Our analyses based on climate and vegetation criteria thus seem to resolve the long‐standing biome delimitation problem, help in consistent characterization of research sites, and create a basis for further biogeographic and ecological research in global tundra environments.     

Soil moisture's underestimated role in climate change impact modelling in low‐energy systems

Shifts in precipitation regimes are an inherent component of climate change, but in low‐energy systems are often assumed to be less important than changes in temperature. Because soil moisture is the hydrological variable most proximally linked to plant performance during the growing season in arctic‐alpine habitats, it may offer the most useful perspective on the influence of changes in precipitation on vegetation. Here we quantify the influence of soil moisture for multiple vegetation properties at fine spatial scales, to determine the potential importance of soil moisture under changing climatic conditions. A fine‐scale data set, comprising vascular species cover and field‐quantified ecologically relevant environmental parameters, was analysed to determine the influence of soil moisture relative to other key abiotic predictors. Soil moisture was strongly related to community composition, species richness and the occurrence patterns of individual species, having a similar or greater influence than soil temperature, pH and solar radiation. Soil moisture varied considerably over short distances, and this fine‐scale heterogeneity may contribute to offsetting the ecological impacts of changes in precipitation for species not limited to extreme soil moisture conditions. In conclusion, soil moisture is a key driver of vegetation properties, both at the species and community level, even in this low‐energy system. Soil moisture conditions represent an important mechanism through which changing climatic conditions impact vegetation, and advancing our predictive capability will therefore require a better understanding of how soil moisture mediates the effects of climate change on biota.     

Climate change affects the outcome of competitive interactions—an application of principal response curves

It has been hypothesised that climate change may affect vegetation by changing the outcome of competitive interactions. We use a space-for-time approach to evaluate this hypothesis in the context of alpine time-of-snowmelt gradients. Principal response curves, a multivariate repeated-measurement analysis technique, are used to analyse for compositional differences in local ridge-to-snowbed gradients among 100 m altitudinal bands from 1,140 to 1,550 m a.s.l., corresponding to a temperature gradient of 2.5°C (local lapse rate is 0.6°C). The interaction between time-of-snowmelt and altitude is strongly significant statistically, indicating that the altitudinal gradient cannot be explained simply by the physiological responses of the species, but that there are also changes in the outcome of competitive interactions. At higher altitudes, there is a decrease in the time-of-snowmelt ranges of species which have intermediate times-of-snowmelt optima, whereas snowbed (chinophilous) species have wider time-of-snowmelt ranges. As snowbed species can survive, grow and reproduce at very early snow-free sites at high altitudes, the most likely explanation for their absence from all but the latest time-of-snowmelt habitats at lower altitudes is competitive exclusion by more vigorous lee-side species. This suggests that with future climate change snowbed species will experience, in addition to habitat fragmentation and reduced size of habitats due to increased temperature and snowmelt, an indirect effect due to competitive exclusion from late-snowmelt sites by species that have their optima outside snowbeds.     

The importance of biotic filtering on boreal conifer recruitment at alpine treeline

Treeline, the ecotone where forest transitions to alpine or tundra ecosystems, is considered the thermal limit to tree growth and survival. Despite temperature increases across mountainous areas and high latitudes globally, there has been no ubiquitous change in treeline position. The process of range expansion must initially depend on increased recruitment at, or beyond current range limits and recruitment limitations have been hypothesized as a mechanism for the variable response of treeline position to climate warming. We conducted a unique series of observational and experimental studies to quantify early-life stage constraints, from seed production to seedling establishment, on black spruce Picea mariana and tamarack Larix laricina recruitment at a model alpine treeline in Newfoundland, Canada. We found recruitment at treeline to be simultaneously seed and establishment limited. The treeline population produced fewer seeds than the forest population and black spruce seeds produced at treeline were less viable. Tamarack was more seed limited than black spruce where seed viability was low regardless of altitudinal position. Post-dispersal seed predation greatly constrained recruitment across the altitudinal gradient; however, black spruce seeds experienced the lowest levels of invertebrate seed predation on the lichen mat at treeline. If seeds were not consumed, individuals at treeline were establishment limited where germination and seedling establishment was both less abundant and delayed on lichen substrate. Our study highlights the need for multiple factors to align temporally for significant recruitment at treeline to occur.     

Vegetation pattern of mountains in West Greenland – a baseline for long-term surveillance of global warming impacts

Background: Steep environmental gradients, coupled with predicted high temperature rises in the Arctic make arctic mountain vegetation highly suitable for surveillance of changes related to global warming. However, guidelines and baselines for such a purpose are widely lacking since arctic mountain vegetation has been little explored.

Aims: We explore options for long-term surveillance on the basis of a detailed analysis of extant plant community patterns and their underlying environmental conditions in the mountainous inland of West Greenland.

Methods: Distribution, abundance and site conditions of vegetation types were analysed, using 664 vegetation samples and detailed vegetation maps in four altitudinal belts.

Results: Most plant communities had a restricted elevation distribution and were confined to special habitats predominantly defined by mesotopography and soil moisture.

Conclusions: Based on the strong linkage to habitat conditions, horizontal and vertical changes of species distribution and vegetation pattern are excellent indicators for inferring underlying environmental changes on three different scales. The recommendations given concerning climate sensitive species and plant communities, ecotones for setting up observation sites as well as stratification of analysis by habitats can be the basis for establishing long-term surveillance programmes on arctic mountain vegetation.     

A model of alpine species distribution in relation to snowmelt time and altitude

Abstract. The focus of this study is the response of species to time of snowmelt and altitude in alpine areas and an examination of changes in species response to snowmelt as altitude increases and temperature decreases. Transects (n= 43) were placed evenly along an altitudinal gradient at Finse, Hardanger‐vidda, western Norway, from ridges to late snowbeds. These gradients were systematically sampled (‘Repeated Gradient Analysis, RGA’) and an adjusted F‐test was used to determine repeated trends in species distribution along the transects. Of the 41 taxa analysed 22 showed a significant change in expected occurrence in response to time of snowmelt (when a site becomes free of snow) as altitude increased. Three types of response were observed: (1) no change in response: (2) increased occurrence as altitude increases, i.e. the taxon invades snow‐free sites as altitude increases, and (3) decreased occurrence as altitude increases, i.e. the taxon retreats from snow covered areas. It is suggested that the changes in response are due to both environmental factors (temperature related) and biological interactions. Decreases in expected occurrence are probably due to increased environmental severity as altitude increases (temperature related decreases). These species are represented by taxa preferring intermediate cover of snow. The invasion of earlier snow‐free sites is probably due to reduced competition from lee‐side taxa as altitude increases. A predictive model based on the species‐environmental relationships suggests that a 1°K temperature increase changes the limits of occurrence in response to time of snowmelt from 3 to 20 days for the different taxa.     

Dissolved Organic Carbon in Headwater Streams and Riparian Soil Organic Carbon along an Altitudinal Gradient in the Wuyi Mountains,China

Stream water dissolved organic carbon (DOC) correlates positively with soil organic carbon (SOC) in many biomes. Does this relationship hold in a small geographic region when variations of temperature, precipitation and vegetation are driven by a significant altitudinal gradient? We examined the spatial connectivity between concentrations of DOC in headwater stream and contents of riparian SOC and water-soluble soil organic carbon (WSOC), riparian soil C:N ratio, and temperature in four vegetation types along an altitudinal gradient in the Wuyi Mountains, China. Our analyses showed that annual mean concentrations of headwater stream DOC were lower in alpine meadow (AM) than in subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest (EBF), coniferous forest (CF), and subalpine dwarf forest (SDF). Headwater stream DOC concentrations were negatively correlated with riparian SOC as well as WSOC contents, and were unrelated to riparian soil C:N ratio. Our findings suggest that DOC concentrations in headwater streams are affected by different factors at regional and local scales. The dilution effect of higher precipitation and adsorption of soil DOC to higher soil clay plus silt content at higher elevation may play an important role in causing lower DOC concentrations in AM stream of the Wuyi Mountains. Our results suggest that upscaling and downscaling of the drivers of DOC export from forested watersheds when exploring the response of carbon flux to climatic change or other drivers must done with caution.     

Geomorphological disturbance affects ecological driving forces and plant turnover along an altitudinal stress gradient on alpine slopes

The altitudinal gradient is considered as a stress gradient for plant species because the development and fitness of plant communities tend to decrease as a result of the extreme environmental conditions present at high elevations. Abiotic factors are predicted to be the primary filter for species assemblage in high alpine areas, influencing biotic interactions through both competition for resources and positive interactions among species. We hypothesised that the relative importance of the ecological driving forces that affect the biotic interactions within plant communities changes along an elevation gradient on alpine debris slopes. We used multiple gradient analyses of 180 vegetation plots along an altitudinal range from ~1,600 to 2,600 m and single 100 m-bands in the Adamello-Presanella Group (Central Alps) to investigate our hypothesis; we measured multiple environmental variables related to different ecological driving forces. Our results illustrate that resource limitations at higher elevations affect not only the shift from competition to facilitation among species. A geomorphological disturbance regime along alpine slopes favours the resilience of the high-altitude species within topographic/geomorphological traps. An understanding of the ecological driving forces and positive interactions as a function of altitude may clarify the mechanisms underlying plant responses to present and future environmental changes.     

Shrub range expansion alters diversity and distribution of soil fungal communities across an alpine elevation gradient

Global climate and land use change are altering plant and soil microbial communities worldwide, particularly in arctic and alpine biomes where warming is accelerated. The widespread expansion of woody shrubs into historically herbaceous alpine plant zones is likely to interact with climate to affect soil microbial community structure and function; however, our understanding of alpine soil ecology remains limited. This study aimed to (i) determine whether the diversity and community composition of soil fungi vary across elevation gradients and to (ii) assess the impact of woody shrub expansion on these patterns. In the White Mountains of California, sagebrush (Artemisia rothrockii) shrubs have been expanding upwards into alpine areas since 1960. In this study, we combined observational field data with a manipulative shrub removal experiment along an elevation transect of alpine shrub expansion. We utilized next‐generation sequencing of the ITS1 region for fungi and joint distribution modelling to tease apart effects of the environment and intracommunity interactions on soil fungi. We found that soil fungal diversity declines and community composition changes with increasing elevation. Both abiotic factors (primarily soil moisture and soil organic C) and woody sagebrush range expansion had significant effects on these patterns. However, fungal diversity and relative abundance had high spatial variation, overwhelming the predictive power of vegetation type, elevation and abiotic soil conditions at the landscape scale. Finally, we observed positive and negative associations among fungal taxa which may be important in structuring community responses to global change.     

Can the effect of species ecological traits on birds' altitudinal changes differ between geographic areas?

The altitudinal distribution of mountain birds has recently changed following different patterns in space and time, probably due to the variability of the ongoing environmental processes. Although several studies have highlighted the effect of climate warming in affecting birds altitudinal responses, in the Alps, land abandonment and the consequential forest regrowth may have played a fundamental role.We applied the response curve shape method to investigate changes in the altitudinal distribution of breeding birds over a ten-year period in two different alpine areas (Central and Western Italian Alps) and we performed a log-linear analysis to depict the differential responses of species grouped according to their breeding habitat preferences.The patterns of change remarkably differed according to species ecological traits and between mountain areas. We did not highlight clear altitudinal changes in the Central Alps for any ecological groups, while in the Western Alps, woodland birds showed an expansion pattern and grassland birds suffered a retraction pattern. Since the two alpine areas did not suffer a significant temperature increase, but experienced different woodland cover dynamics, we believe that forest regrowth played a key role in shaping the different bird altitudinal responses between the two sites.Our findings illustrate the effect of ecological traits in shaping altitudinal changes and the role of local environmental factors in affecting spatial variation. Particularly, we strongly suggest considering woodland cover expansion as a key driver of bird altitudinal changes in alpine areas.     

Winter climate change,plant traits and nutrient and carbon cycling in cold biomes

It is essential that scientists be able to predict how strong climate warming, including profound changes to winter climate, will affect the ecosystem services of alpine, arctic and boreal areas, and how these services are driven by vegetation–soil feedbacks. One fruitful avenue for studying such changing feedbacks is through plant functional traits, as an understanding of these traits may help us to understand and synthesise (1) responses of vegetation (through ‘response traits’ and ‘specific response functions’ of each species) to winter climate and (2) the effects of changing vegetation composition (through ‘effect traits’ and ‘specific effect functions’ of each species) on soil functions. It is the relative correspondence of variation in response and effect traits that will provide useful data on the impacts of winter climate change on carbon and nutrient cycling processes. Here we discuss several examples of how the trait-based, response–effect framework can help scientists to better understand the effects of winter warming on key ecosystem functions in cold biomes. These examples support the view that measuring species for their response and effect traits, and how these traits are linked across species through correspondence of variation in specific response and effects functions, may be a useful approach for teasing out the contribution of changing vegetation composition to winter warming effects on ecosystem functions. This approach will be particularly useful when linked with ecosystem-level measurements of vegetation and process responses to winter warming along natural gradients, over medium time scales in given sites or in response to experimental climate manipulations.     

高山植物叶片δ13C的海拔响应及其机理

植物 1 3C的分辨研究已成为植物生态学和全球碳循环研究的核心问题之一。植物 1 3C的分辨是环境和生物因子共同作用的综合结果 ,海拔梯度变化不仅可以造成植物生存环境的变化 ,而且还可以造成植物形态和生理特征的变化 ,因此 ,高山植物 1 3C分辨随海拔的变化为深入揭示植物 1 3C分辨的环境和生物因子的作用机理提供了非常理想的研究条件。在简单介绍植物 1 3C分辨基本理论的基础上 ,对目前国际上高山植物 1 3C分辨的海拔响应研究进行了述评。重点介绍了随海拔变化的大气 1 3C组成、温度、气压、水分等环境因子和植物叶片的气孔导度、羧化效率、氮含量和叶肉细胞导度等生物因子对高山 C3植物 1 3C分辨的影响 ,指出高山植物 1 3C分辨的海拔响应机理仍存在一些不确定性 ,为国内相关研究的开展提供了一定参考     

Small shifts in microsite occupation could mitigate climate change consequences for mountain top endemics: a test analyzing saxicolous lichen distribution patterns

The extent to which small shifts among local topographic microsites could mitigate the effects of larger-scale climate change in arctic–alpine systems including mountain top organisms is largely unknown. This study is among the first to evaluate the relative contribution of microsite and altitude as a proxy for climate change on saxicolous lichen communities. We registered 107 lichen species in 54 boulders ranging from 900 to 2700 m.a.s.l. and in a large array of microsites in central Argentina. Communities ordinated along NMS multivariate analysis axes 1, 2 and 3 presented a cumulative R² of 80%. The three axes were explained by altitude with axis 1 only being explained by altitude. Axis 2 was also explained by slope and aspect whereas axis 3 was explained by the interaction of altitude with aspect indicating that aspect was important only at lower altitudes but not at the mountain top. Lichen cover and richness were similar throughout the altitudinal gradient. We interpret that under a climate warming scenario, lower altitude species occupying pole ward facing slopes will have to migrate upwards while at the mountain top—for most communities—there still is scope for microsite segregation to compensate climate change.     

西南高山亚高山区植被水分利用效率时空特征及其与气候因子的关系

水分利用效率(WUE)是深入理解生态系统水碳循环及其耦合关系的重要指标。为了揭示气候变化背景下区域尺度不同植被类型的响应和适应特征, 对中国西南高山亚高山地区2000-2014年的9种植被类型的WUE时空特征及其影响因素进行探究。该研究基于MODIS总初级生产力(GPP)、蒸散发(ET)数据和气象数据, 估算西南高山亚高山区植被WUE, 采用趋势分析及相关分析等方法, 分析了研究区植被WUE与气温、降水及海拔的关系。主要结果: (1)西南高山亚高山区2000-2014年植被WUE多年均值为0.95 g·m^-2·mm^-1, 整体呈显著增加趋势, 增速为0.011 g·m^-2·mm^-1·a^-1; 空间上WUE呈东南高西北低的分布, 85.84%区域的WUE呈增加趋势。(2)西南高山亚高山区各植被类型WUE多年均值表现为常绿针叶林>稀树草原>常绿阔叶林>有林草原>农田>落叶阔叶林>混交林>郁闭灌丛>草地; 时间上, 各植被类型WUE均呈上升趋势。(3)西南高山亚高山区89.56%区域的WUE与气温正相关, 92.54%区域的WUE与降水量负相关; 各植被类型中, 草地WUE与气温的相关性最高, 有林草原WUE与降水量的相关性最高。(4)西南高山亚高山区典型的地带性顶极植被常绿针叶林的WUE具有较强的海拔适应性及应对气候变化的能力。