Plant functional trait change across a warming tundra biomeThe tundra is warming more rapidly than any other biome on Earth, and the potential ramifications are far-reaching because of global feedback effects between vegetation and climate. A better understanding of how environmental factors shape plant structure and function is crucial for predicting the consequences of environmental change for ecosystem functioning. Here we explore the biome-wide relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits both across space and over three decades of warming at 117 tundra locations. Spatial temperature-trait relationships were generally strong but soil moisture had a marked influence on the strength and direction of these relationships, highlighting the potentially important influence of changes in water availability on future trait shifts in tundra plant communities. Community height increased with warming across all sites over the past three decades, but other traits lagged far behind predicted rates of change. Our findings highlight the challenge of using space-for-time substitution to predict the functional consequences of future warming and suggest that functions that are tied closely to plant height will experience the most rapid change. They also reveal the strength with which environmental factors shape biotic communities at the coldest extremes of the planet and will help to improve projections of functional changes in tundra ecosystems with climate warming. Environment-trait relationships across the tundra biomeWe found strong spatial associations between temperature and community height, SLA and LDMC (Fig. 2a, Extended Data Fig. 2 and Supplementary Table 3) across the 117 survey sites. Both height and SLA increased with summer temperature, but the temperaturetrait relationship for SLA was much stronger at wetter than at drier sites. LDMC was negatively related to temperature, and

Aims Alpine tree line ecotones are harsh environments where low temperatures constrain tree regeneration and growth. However, the expected upward shift of tree line ecotones in response to climate warming has not been ubiquitous. The lack of coupling between tree line dynamics and climate warming might be explained by factors other than climate variation that determine seedling recruitment in these ecotones. We want to assess how the availability of suitable habitat for establishment and the effects of facilitation on seedling survival and growth affect tree recruitment within tree line ecotones and modulate their responses to climate. LocationWe evaluate the relevance of these factors for Pinus uncinata tree line ecotones in the Catalan Pyrenees (north-east Spain) and Andorra. MethodsWe analysed the microhabitat of naturally established seedlings in rectangular plots at the tree line ecotone, assessing the habitat type and the proximity to potentially protective elements that may improve microsite conditions. We tested whether krummholz individuals influence regeneration at the tree line by performing a transplantation field experiment to evaluate the extent of facilitation on seedling survival and growth in height. A total of 820 seedlings were transplanted at different distances and orientations (resulting in 12 positions) from krummholz mats and monitored over 2 years. ResultsSafe sites for P. uncinata recruits consisted of sparse vegetation covering bare soil, gravel or litter, and close to protective elements that may ameliorate microsite conditions. The field experiment showed that directional positive interactions enhance seedling survival and growth, altering the spatial patterns of recruit survivorship, especially during harsh winter conditions (shallow and irregular snowpack). Main conclusionsOur results suggest that scarce availability of safe sites and uneven facilitation by krummholz control seedling recruitment patterns within alpine tree line ecotones. Such constraints may distort or counter the response of tree line ecotones to climate warming at local and regional scales.

Aim To assess the effects of climate change, past land uses and physiography on the current position of the tree line in the Catalan Pyrenees and its dynamics between 1956 and 2006.Location More than 1000 linear kilometres of sub-alpine tree line in the Catalan Pyrenees (north-east Spain) Methods Using aerial photographs and supervised classification, we reclassified the images into a binary raster with 'tree' and 'non-tree' values, and determined canopy cover in 1956 and 2006. We then determined the change in position of the tree line between 1956 and 2006 based on changes in forest cover. We used the distance from the position of the tree line in 1956 to the theoretical potential tree line -determined from interpretation of aerial photographs, identifying the highest old remnants of forest for homogeneous areas of the landscape in terms of bioclimatic conditions, bedrock, landform and exposure -as a surrogate of intensity of past land uses. ResultsOur analyses showed that the Pyrenean tree line has moved upwards on average almost 40 m (mean advance ± SE: 35.3 ± 0.5 m, P < 0.001), although in most cases it has remained unchanged (61.8%) or advanced moderately, i.e. between 25 and 100 m (23.7%); only 9.2% of the locations have advanced more than 100 m. Upward shifts of the tree line were significantly larger in locations heavily modified in the past by anthropogenic disturbance (mean advance 50.8 ± 1.1 m) compared with near natural tree line locations (19.7 ± 0.8 m, P < 0.001), where the mean displacement was much lower than expected and was not related to changes in temperature along the study period. Main conclusionsOur results stress the impact of the cessation of human activity in driving forest dynamics at the tree line in the Catalan Pyrenees, and reveal a very low or even negligible signal of climate change in the study area.

Motivation The Tundra Trait Team (TTT) database includes field‐based measurements of key traits related to plant form and function at multiple sites across the tundra biome. This dataset can be used to address theoretical questions about plant strategy and trade‐offs, trait–environment relationships and environmental filtering, and trait variation across spatial scales, to validate satellite data, and to inform Earth system model parameters. Main types of variable contained The database contains 91,970 measurements of 18 plant traits. The most frequently measured traits (> 1,000 observations each) include plant height, leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf fresh and dry mass, leaf dry matter content, leaf nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus content, leaf C:N and N:P, seed mass, and stem specific density. Spatial location and grain Measurements were collected in tundra habitats in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, including Arctic sites in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Fennoscandia and Siberia, alpine sites in the European Alps, Colorado Rockies, Caucasus, Ural Mountains, Pyrenees, Australian Alps, and Central Otago Mountains (New Zealand), and sub‐Antarctic Marion Island. More than 99% of observations are georeferenced. Time period and grain All data were collected between 1964 and 2018. A small number of sites have repeated trait measurements at two or more time periods. Major taxa and level of measurement Trait measurements were made on 978 terrestrial vascular plant species growing in tundra habitats. Most observations are on individuals (86%), while the remainder represent plot or site means or maximums per species. Software format csv file and GitHub repository with data cleaning scripts in R; contribution to TRY plant trait database (www.try-db.org) to be included in the next version release.