Boreal Riparian Vegetation Under Climate Change

Nilsson, Christer; Jansson, Roland; Kuglerová, Lenka; Lind, Lovisa; Ström, Lars

doi:10.1007/s10021-012-9622-3

Cited by 54 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…These effects on ice conditions have sometimes changed the dynamics of riverine habitats beyond the ranges on which many species depend (Rood et al, 2007). Flow regulation also makes the streams and rivers particularly sensitive to climate change, especially in boreal regions (Woo et al, 2008;Nilsson et al, 2013). Rivers in regions with winter ice conditions usually experience large fluctuations in flow, but the timing of water availability does not match the timing of human needs for electricity.…”

Section: Anthropogenic Effects On Ice and Vegetation (1) Degradatmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of ice dynamics in shaping vegetation in flowing waters

et al. 2014

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Ice dynamics is an important factor affecting vegetation in high-altitude and high-latitude streams and rivers. During the last few decades, knowledge about ice in streams and rivers has increased significantly and a respectable body of literature is now available. Here we review the literature on how ice dynamics influence riparian and aquatic vegetation. Traditionally, plant ecologists have focused their studies on the summer period, largely ignoring the fact that processes during winter also impact vegetation dynamics. For example, the freeze-up period in early winter may result in extensive formation of underwater ice that can restructure the channel, obstruct flow, and cause flooding and thus formation of more ice. In midwinter, slow-flowing reaches develop a surface-ice cover that accumulates snow, protecting habitats under the ice from formation of underwater ice but also reducing underwater light, thus suppressing photosynthesis. Towards the end of winter, ice breaks up and moves downstream. During this transport, ice floes can jam up and cause floods and major erosion. The magnitudes of the floods and their erosive power mainly depend on the size of the watercourse, also resulting in different degrees of disturbance to the vegetation. Vegetation responds both physically and physiologically to ice dynamics. Physical action involves the erosive force of moving ice and damage caused by ground frost, whereas physiological effects - mostly cell damage - happen as a result of plants freezing into the ice. On a community level, large magnitudes of ice dynamics seem to favour species richness, but can be detrimental for individual plants. Human impacts, such as flow regulation, channelisation, agriculturalisation and water pollution have modified ice dynamics; further changes are expected as a result of current and predicted future climate change. Human impacts and climate change can both favour and disfavour riverine vegetation dynamics. Restoration of streams and rivers may mitigate some effects of anticipated climate change on ice and vegetation dynamics by, for example, slowing down flows and increasing water depth, thus reducing the potential for massive formation of underwater ice.

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Section: Anthropogenic Effects On Ice and Vegetation (1) Degradatmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of ice dynamics in shaping vegetation in flowing waters

et al. 2014

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“…Topographic barriers are important in constraining this expansion (Rupp et al 2001). River erosion and deposition replace late-successional ecosystems with water and barren fluvial deposits (Nilsson et al 2013). Lake area has increased through shore erosion and decreased from drainage associated with permafrost degradation , evaporative loss and paludification (Roach et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Projected changes in diverse ecosystems from climate warming and biophysical drivers in northwest Alaska

Jorgenson¹,

Marcot

Swanson

et al. 2015

Climatic Change

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Climate warming affects arctic and boreal ecosystems by interacting with numerous biophysical factors across heterogeneous landscapes. To assess potential effects of warming on diverse local-scale ecosystems (ecotypes) across northwest Alaska, we compiled data on historical areal changes over the last 25-50 years. Based on historical rates of change relative to time and temperature, we developed three state-transition models to project future changes in area for 60 ecotypes involving 243 potential transitions during three 30-year periods (ending 2040, 2070, 2100). The time model, assuming changes over the past 30 years continue at the same rate, projected a net change, or directional shift, of 6 % by 2100. The temperature model, using past rates of change relative to the past increase in regional mean annual air temperatures (1°C/30 year), projected a net change of 17 % in response to expected warming of 2, 4, and 6°C at the end of the three periods. A rate-adjusted temperature model, which adjusted transition rates (±50 %) based on assigned feedbacks associated with 23 biophysical drivers, estimated a net change of 13 %, with 33 ecotypes gaining and 23 ecotypes losing area. Major drivers included shrub and tree expansion, fire, succession, and thermokarst. Overall, projected A. R. DeGange Alaska Climate Science Center, U. S. Geological Survey, 4210 University Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA changes will be modest over the next century even though climate warming increased transition rates up to 9 fold. The strength of this state-transition modeling is that it used a large dataset of past changes to provide a comprehensive assessment of likely future changes associated with numerous drivers affecting the full diversity of ecosystems across a broad region.

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“…However, the special biogeochemical conditions of the riparian zone also have consequences for the transport of widely different substances such as nitrogen (Hill, 1996;Cirmo and McDonnell, 1997;Sabater et al, 2003), phosphorus (Mulholland, 1992), base cations (Ledesma et al, 2013), aluminium (Cory et al, 2007), mercury , persistent organic pollutants (Bergknut et al, 2011) and pesticides (Vidon et al, 2010). Furthermore, the riparian zone is gaining increasing recognition as an ecological hotspot (Jansson et al, 2007;Kuglerová et al, 2013;Nilsson et al, 2013). As a consequence, precautions are often taken in modern forestry in order to reduce the deleterious impact of logging on riparian soils (Moore and Richardson, 2012;Kuglerová et al, 2014;Tiwari et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From soil water to surface water – how the riparian zone controls element transport from a boreal forest to a stream

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Boreal headwaters are often lined by strips of highly organic soils, which are the last terrestrial environment to leave an imprint on discharging groundwater before it enters a stream. Because these riparian soils are so different from the Podzol soils that dominate much of the boreal landscape, they are known to have a major impact on the biogeochemistry of important elements such as C, N, P and Fe and the transfer of these elements from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems. For most elements, however, the role of the riparian zone has remained unclear, although it should be expected that the mobility of many elements is affected by changes in, for example, pH, redox potential and concentration of organic carbon as they are transported through the riparian zone. Therefore, soil water and groundwater was sampled at different depths along a 22 m hillslope transect in the Krycklan catchment in northern Sweden using soil lysimeters and analysed for a large number of major and trace elements (Al, As, B, Ba, Ca, Cd, Cl, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, K, La, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Rb, Se, Si, Sr, Th, Ti, U, V, Zn, Zr) and other parameters such as sulfate and total organic carbon (TOC). The results showed that the concentrations of most investigated elements increased substantially (up to 60 times) as the water flowed from the uphill mineral soils and into the riparian zone, largely as a result of higher TOC concentrations. The stream water concentrations of these elements were typically somewhat lower than in the riparian zone, but still considerably higher than in the uphill mineral soils, which suggests that riparian soils have a decisive impact on the water quality of boreal streams. The degree of enrichment in the riparian zone for different elements could be linked to the affinity for organic matter, indicating that the pattern with strongly elevated concentrations in riparian soils is typical for organophilic substances. One likely explanation is that the solubility of many organophilic elements increases as a result of the higher concentrations of TOC in the riparian zone. Elements with low or modest affinity for organic matter (e.g. Na, Cl, K, Mg and Ca) occurred in similar or lower concentrations in the riparian zone. Despite the elevated concentrations of many elements in riparian soil water and groundwater, no increase in the concentrations in biota could be observed (bilberry leaves and spruce shoots).

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Boreal Riparian Vegetation Under Climate Change

Cited by 54 publications

References 86 publications

The role of ice dynamics in shaping vegetation in flowing waters

The role of ice dynamics in shaping vegetation in flowing waters

Projected changes in diverse ecosystems from climate warming and biophysical drivers in northwest Alaska

From soil water to surface water – how the riparian zone controls element transport from a boreal forest to a stream

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