New land in the Neotropics: a review of biotic community, ecosystem, and landscape transformations in the face of climate and glacier change

Cuesta, Francisco; Llambí, Luis Daniel; Huggel, Christian; Drenkhan, Fabián; Gosling, William D.; Muriel, Priscilla; Jaramillo, Ricardo; Tovar, Carolina

doi:10.1007/s10113-019-01499-3

Cited by 44 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 146 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Overall, this suggests that diverse Páramo areas of the Eastern Cordillera are the most vulnerable to changing climate. Climate change pushing Espeletia toward mountain summits where there is nowhere else to go (Cuesta et al, 2019a), together with a general inability of those populations to adapt, might constrain the rapid diversification that has made the Espeletia complex so unique.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2,800-5,000 m). It is a main water supplier of wetland ecosystems and densely populated areas in the northern Andes (Cuesta et al, 2019a;Llambí et al, 2020). Despite it has a relatively small surface area (35,000 km 2 ), it contains over 3,000 plant species, several of which are endemic (Luteyn, 1999;Hughes and Atchison, 2015) and emerged as unique adaptations to extreme environments that evolved during the Andean uplift in the last five million years (Antonelli et al, 2009;Madriñán et al, 2013;Mutke et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Climate Vulnerability Assessment of the Espeletia Complex on Páramo Sky Islands in the Northern Andes

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Vulnerability Assessment of the Espeletia Complex on Páramo Sky Islands in the Northern Andes

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…These species do not only thrive in soils with low fertility (Spasojevic, Damschen, & Harrison, 2014) and areas with open canopy (Ozinga, Bekker, Schaminee, & Van Groenendael, 2004), but also in well-established soils (Matteodo et al, 2013). In the high tropical Andes, anemochory prevailed in species-poor communities (Figure 3), which could be linked to incipient soil development on steep slopes (Cuesta et al, 2019). Thus, soil development and type may better explain the dominance of anemochorous species rather than temperature.…”

Section: Climate Is Strongly Associated With Plant Dispersal Stratementioning

confidence: 99%

Plant dispersal strategies of high tropical alpine communities across the Andes

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Dispersal is a key ecological process that influences plant community assembly. Therefore, understanding whether dispersal strategies are associated with climate is of utmost importance, particularly in areas greatly exposed to climate change. We examined alpine plant communities located in the mountain summits of the tropical Andes across a 4,000‐km latitudinal gradient. We investigated species dispersal strategies and tested their association with climatic conditions and their evolutionary history. We used dispersal‐related traits (dispersal mode and growth form) to characterize dispersal strategies for 486 species recorded on 49 mountain summits. Then we analysed the phylogenetic signal of traits and investigated the association between dispersal traits, phylogeny, climate and space using structural equation modelling and fourth‐corner analysis together with RLQ ordination. A median of 36% species in the communities was anemochorous (wind‐dispersed) and herbaceous. This dispersal strategy was followed by the barochory‐herb combination (herbaceous with unspecialized seeds, dispersed by gravity) with a median of 26.3% species in the communities. The latter strategy was common among species with distributions restricted to alpine environments. While trait states were phylogenetically conserved, they were significantly associated with a temperature gradient. Low minimum air temperatures, found at higher latitudes/elevations, were correlated with the prevalence of barochory and the herb growth form, traits that are common among Caryophyllales, Brassicaceae and Poaceae. Milder temperatures, found at lower latitudes/elevations, were associated with endozoochorous, shrub species mostly from the Ericaceae family. Anemochorous species were found all along the temperature gradient, possibly due to the success of anemochorous Compositae species in alpine regions. We also found that trait state dominance was more associated with the climatic conditions of the summit than with community phylogenetic structure. Although the evolutionary history of the tropical Andean flora has also shaped dispersal strategies, our results suggest that the environment had a more predominant role. Synthesis. We showed that dispersal‐related traits are strongly associated with a gradient of minimum air temperatures in the Andes. Global warming may weaken this key filter at tropical alpine summits, potentially altering community dispersal strategies in this region and thus, plant community structure and composition.

show abstract

“…In the humid northern Andes of Colombia and Venezuela, glacier retreat is expected to have a comparatively limited impact on water provision for human populations due to the smaller spatial extent of glaciers, the remote location of glaciated peaks relative to urban population centers, and the major role of Andean forests and paramo vegetation and soils in regulating water provision (Morán-Tejeda et al 2018). However, glacier loss will undoubtedly impact local tropical alpine biodiversity and downstream ecosystems and landscapes, including the dynamics of river and wetland ecosystems in catchments with glacier influence (Dangles et al 2017;Polk et al 2017;Young et al 2017;Cuesta et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The end of the eternal snows: Integrative mapping of 100 years of glacier retreat in the Venezuelan Andes

Ramírez¹,

Melfo

Resler

et al. 2020

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Venezuela will soon become the first Andean country to lose all of its glaciers, as the "eternal snows" of the Sierra Nevada de Mérida (SNM) disappear. Although documentation of glacier retreat in Venezuela commenced over a century ago, an updated reconstruction at sufficient spatial resolution is warranted. Our objectives were to (a) produce detailed multitemporal maps of glacier cover in the SNM since 1952 and revise historical estimates for 1910 and (b) document changes in cover and rates of glacier retreat of the last Venezuelan glacier at Humboldt Peak. We integrated multiple information sources, including topographic/geomorphic evidence, high-resolution aerial photographs, satellite images, historical maps, panoramic photos, and field observations. We present 1:5,000 maps of glacier cover between 1952 and 2019 and revise the maps of 1910. In Venezuela, glacial area has decreased 98 percent between 1952 and 2019 (from 2.317 km 2 to 0.046 km 2). Glacier retreat rates increased after 1998, with a maximum of −16.9 percent year −1 between 2016 and 2019. These new maps should provide an essential tool for biophysical, ecological, and historical studies and a key reference for promoting awareness on climate change in the tropical Andes, where glaciers are intimately linked with cultural identity.

show abstract

New land in the Neotropics: a review of biotic community, ecosystem, and landscape transformations in the face of climate and glacier change

Cited by 44 publications

References 146 publications

Climate Vulnerability Assessment of the Espeletia Complex on Páramo Sky Islands in the Northern Andes

Climate Vulnerability Assessment of the Espeletia Complex on Páramo Sky Islands in the Northern Andes

Plant dispersal strategies of high tropical alpine communities across the Andes

The end of the eternal snows: Integrative mapping of 100 years of glacier retreat in the Venezuelan Andes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About