Plant Responses to Climate Change and an Elevational Gradient in Mont Mégantic National Park, Québec, Canada

Vellend, Mark; Béhé, Mélanie; Carteron, Alexis; Crofts, Anna L.; Danneyrolles, Victor; Gamhewa, Hasanki T.; Ni, Ming; Rinas, Christina L.; Watts, David A.

doi:10.1656/045.028.s1102

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…Finally, this study builds on previous work with the same species, T. erectum and E. americanum in particular, at the same site [41,[48][49][50]. Pilot studies of these species' distributions with respect to elevation and soil (based only on a simple characterization of mesic soils versus relatively rare wet microsites) motivated our hypothesis that soil conditions might have stronger effects at high versus low elevation (reported in electronic supplementary material, appendix S4 of [41] and in [39]). The field survey was conducted between 29 April and 7 June 2021 at elevations from 650 m to 1050 m. Timing was determined based on phenology; each plot was surveyed at a time when all four species had emerged but not yet begun senescence (earlier at low elevation, later at high elevation).…”

Section: Methods (A) Study Site and Speciesmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Finally, this study builds on previous work with the same species, T. erectum and E. americanum in particular, at the same site [41,48–50]. Pilot studies of these species’ distributions with respect to elevation and soil (based only on a simple characterization of mesic soils versus relatively rare wet microsites) motivated our hypothesis that soil conditions might have stronger effects at high versus low elevation (reported in electronic supplementary material, appendix S4 of [41] and in [39]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An experiment was established in 2015 as an initial test of whether high elevation areas might already have become suitable for T. erectum , given marked warming over the past 50 years [39]. If so, the species' absence at high elevation could be explained by a temporal lag related to dispersal limitation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Herbaceous species not only account for most of the vascular plant diversity in temperate forests [34–36], but they also play important roles in forest ecosystem functioning [37,38]. In a pilot study at our field site in southern Québec, we found that some understory herbaceous plants occurred at higher elevations when growing adjacent to two creeks than away from those creeks [39]. This suggested the hypothesis that wet and nutrient-rich soils might permit the colonization and persistence of these species in cold environments, but this hypothesis has not been tested.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Soil properties constrain forest understory plant distributions along an elevation gradient

Ni,

Vellend

2024

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Projections of spatial biodiversity dynamics under climate warming are often based on models including only climate variables, and when non-climatic factors (e.g. soil) are included, data are often at much coarser spatial resolutions than those experienced by plants. Field studies along elevation gradients permit the gathering of detailed soil data, while still covering a wide climatic gradient. Here, an intensive field survey of four spring forest herbs along an elevation gradient showed that soil properties had substantial impacts on the occurrence/abundance of all species, and that soil effects were more pronounced at higher elevations. For Trillium erectum and Claytonia caroliniana , very infrequent occurrences at high elevation were strongly associated with rare microsites with high pH or nutrients. In a seven-year transplant experiment with T. erectum , we found that individuals grew to much smaller sizes at high than low elevation, suggesting that environmental factors rather than dispersal limitation constrain the species' upper range limit, despite substantial warming in recent decades. Our study demonstrates that soil factors interact strongly with climate to determine plant range limits along climatic gradients. Unsuitable soils for plants at high elevations or latitudes may represent an important constraint on future plant migration and biodiversity change. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ecological novelty and planetary stewardship: biodiversity dynamics in a transforming biosphere’.

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Section: Methods (A) Study Site and Speciesmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Soil properties constrain forest understory plant distributions along an elevation gradient

Ni,

Vellend

2024

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…Plant species with less plastic climatic niches are arguably more likely to exhibit range shifts, provided the dispersal is not limiting. For example, in warming mountainous regions across the globe, there is abundant evidence of plant populations exhibiting range shifts or contractions to higher elevations that are cooler [ 237 , 238 , 239 ]. While plant species with extensive dispersal would be expected to arrive at upslope habitats where PE matching may be better maintained [ 191 , 192 ], less well-dispersed species may not be able to track favorable abiotic conditions, potentially leading to local extirpation.…”

Section: Phenotype–environment Matchingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant Species’ Capacity for Range Shifts at the Habitat and Geographic Scales: A Trade-Off-Based Framework

McNichol

Russo

2023

Plants

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Climate change is causing rapid shifts in the abiotic and biotic environmental conditions experienced by plant populations, but we lack generalizable frameworks for predicting the consequences for species. These changes may cause individuals to become poorly matched to their environments, potentially inducing shifts in the distributions of populations and altering species’ habitat and geographic ranges. We present a trade-off-based framework for understanding and predicting whether plant species may undergo range shifts, based on ecological strategies defined by functional trait variation. We define a species’ capacity for undergoing range shifts as the product of its colonization ability and the ability to express a phenotype well-suited to the environment across life stages (phenotype–environment matching), which are both strongly influenced by a species’ ecological strategy and unavoidable trade-offs in function. While numerous strategies may be successful in an environment, severe phenotype–environment mismatches result in habitat filtering: propagules reach a site but cannot establish there. Operating within individuals and populations, these processes will affect species’ habitat ranges at small scales, and aggregated across populations, will determine whether species track climatic changes and undergo geographic range shifts. This trade-off-based framework can provide a conceptual basis for species distribution models that are generalizable across plant species, aiding in the prediction of shifts in plant species’ ranges in response to climate change.

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Topography‐driven microclimate gradients shape forest structure, diversity, and composition in a temperate refugial forest

McNichol,

Wang,

Hefner

et al. 2024

Plant Enviro Interactions

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Macroclimate drives vegetation distributions, but fine‐scale topographic variation can generate microclimate refugia for plant persistence in unsuitable areas. However, we lack quantitative descriptions of topography‐driven microclimatic variation and how it shapes forest structure, diversity, and composition. We hypothesized that topographic variation and the presence of the forest overstory cause spatiotemporal microclimate variation affecting tree performance, causing forest structure, diversity, and composition to vary with topography and microclimate, and topography and the overstory to buffer microclimate. In a 20.2‐ha inventory plot in the North American Great Plains, we censused woody stems ≥1 cm in diameter and collected detailed topographic and microclimatic data. Across 59‐m of elevation, microclimate covaried with topography to create a sharp desiccation gradient, and topography and the overstory buffered understory microclimate. The magnitude of microclimatic variation mirrored that of regional‐scale variation: with increasing elevation, there was a decrease in soil moisture corresponding to the difference across ~2.1° of longitude along the east‐to‐west aridity gradient and an increase in air temperature corresponding to the difference across ~2.7° of latitude along the north‐to‐south gradient. More complex forest structure and higher diversity occurred in moister, less‐exposed habitats, and species occupied distinct topographic niches. Our study demonstrates how topographic and microclimatic gradients structure forests in putative climate‐change refugia, by revealing ecological processes enabling populations to be maintained during periods of unfavorable macroclimate.

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Plant Responses to Climate Change and an Elevational Gradient in Mont Mégantic National Park, Québec, Canada

Cited by 9 publications

References 71 publications

Soil properties constrain forest understory plant distributions along an elevation gradient

Soil properties constrain forest understory plant distributions along an elevation gradient

Plant Species’ Capacity for Range Shifts at the Habitat and Geographic Scales: A Trade-Off-Based Framework

Topography‐driven microclimate gradients shape forest structure, diversity, and composition in a temperate refugial forest

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