Seeds at risk: How will a changing alpine climate affect regeneration from seeds in alpine areas?

Briceño, Verõnica F.; Hoyle, Gemma L.; Nicotra, Adrienne B.

doi:10.1007/s00035-015-0155-1

Cited by 43 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…In these ecosystems, field manipulative experiments have shown that climate directly influences plant phenology (Hoffmann et al, 2010;Dorji et al, 2013), reproduction (Klady et al, 2011), morphology (Hudson & Henry, 2009), growth (Hollister et al, 2005), floristic composition (Elmendorf et al, 2012a) and biotic interactions (Klanderud, 2005). However, most studies in these ecosystems have focused on mature plant responses in undisturbed vegetation (Briceño et al, 2015). Few have included disturbance as a factor (but see: Munier et al, 2010;Graae et al, 2010;Camac et al, 2015), or examined the influence of climate change on seedlings in post-disturbance environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Few have included disturbance as a factor (but see: Munier et al, 2010;Graae et al, 2010;Camac et al, 2015), or examined the influence of climate change on seedlings in post-disturbance environments. As a consequence, little is known about how climate affects seedling demographic rates (Briceño et al, 2015), particularly in alpine and tundra post-disturbance conditions. This is despite mounting evidence that seedling regeneration is important in alpine and arctic ecosystems (Venn & Morgan, 2009;Briceño et al, 2015), particularly for woody species Williams et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a consequence, little is known about how climate affects seedling demographic rates (Briceño et al, 2015), particularly in alpine and tundra post-disturbance conditions. This is despite mounting evidence that seedling regeneration is important in alpine and arctic ecosystems (Venn & Morgan, 2009;Briceño et al, 2015), particularly for woody species Williams et al, 2014). Seedlings are the life stage that determines the long-term persistence of a species as well as its capacity to establish in new areas (Walck et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climatic warming strengthens a positive feedback between alpine shrubs and fire

Camac

Williams

Wahren

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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Climate change is expected to increase fire activity and woody plant encroachment in arctic and alpine landscapes. However, the extent to which these increases interact to affect the structure, function and composition of alpine ecosystems is largely unknown. Here we use field surveys and experimental manipulations to examine how warming and fire affect recruitment, seedling growth and seedling survival in four dominant Australian alpine shrubs. We found that fire increased establishment of shrub seedlings by as much as 33-fold. Experimental warming also doubled growth rates of tall shrub seedlings and could potentially increase their survival. By contrast, warming had no effect on shrub recruitment, postfire tussock regeneration, or how tussock grass affected shrub seedling growth and survival. These findings indicate that warming, coupled with more frequent or severe fires, will likely result in an increase in the cover and abundance of evergreen shrubs. Given that shrubs are one of the most flammable components in alpine and tundra environments, warming is likely to strengthen an existing feedback between woody species abundance and fire in these ecosystems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climatic warming strengthens a positive feedback between alpine shrubs and fire

Camac

Williams

Wahren

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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“…This complex interface of species with the prevailing climatic condition often guides species to develop dormancy, which will be broken with a particular set of conditions following seed dispersal but before growing season [3,5]. In particular, the changing climate is affecting arctic-alpine species in numerous ways [37] and this effect is the result of many complex interactions between the different biological, hydrological, climatic, and edaphic components of the surrounding ecosystems [38]. Consequently, it is useful to untangle the different mechanisms affecting seeds in order to understand how climate change might alter germination success and whether the experimental investigations analysed later in this review adequately address all the critical aspects of climate change.…”

Section: Theoretical Predictions For Germination Response To Climate mentioning

confidence: 99%

Inconclusive Predictions and Contradictions: A Lack of Consensus on Seed Germination Response to Climate Change at High Altitude and High Latitude

Jaganathan

Dalrymple

2016

Journal of Botany

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Climate change directly affects arctic-alpine plants and acute responses to increased temperatures may be seen in their reproductive fitness and germination ability. However, uncertainties prevail in predicting whether a future warmer climate favors or hampers seed germination in high latitude and high altitude soils and seed germination research in such systems has not been able to provide generalizable patterns of response. The available literature on this subject has been conducted at various locations contributing to difficulties in predicting the response of arctic-alpine seeds to climate change. Here, we show that discrepancies in seed collection, dormancy breaking treatments, and germination conditions found in the published literature are possible reasons for our inability to draw large scale conclusions. We explore how these factors influence the results and highlight the fact that many of the previous investigations have reported the effects of warmer temperature, rather than a warmer climate and all the associated complex environmental interactions, on seed germination. We recommend that long-term monitoring of seed response to treatments that mimic the present and future alpine climate is likely to produce more ecologically meaningful insights and suggest several practical steps that researchers can take that would facilitate greater coherence between studies.

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“…This role becomes more important during intensive climate change including present global warming (ref. Briceño et al 2015). Under present global warming, plants must disperse seeds several hundred kilometers along the latitudinal gradient until the year 2100 to keep up with the rapid rate of global warming (IPCC 2013): On the other hand, plants need to disperse seeds only several hundred meters along the vertical gradient due to the drastic decrease in temperature with increasing altitude (i.e., 100 m upslope roughly corresponds to À0.65°C) (Barry and Chorley 2009;also see K€ orner and Spehn 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negative correlation between altitudes and oxygen isotope ratios of seeds: exploring its applicability to assess vertical seed dispersal

Naoe

Tayasu

Masaki

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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Vertical seed dispersal, which plays a key role in plant escape and/or expansion under climate change, was recently evaluated for the first time using negative correlation between altitudes and oxygen isotope ratio of seeds. Although this method is innovative, its applicability to other plants is unknown. To explore the applicability of the method, we regressed altitudes on δ 18O of seeds of five woody species constituting three families in temperate forests in central Japan. Because climatic factors, including temperature and precipitation that influence δ 18O of plant materials, demonstrate intensive seasonal fluctuation in the temperate zone, we also evaluated the effect of fruiting season of each species on δ 18O of seeds using generalized linear mixed models (GLMM). Negative correlation between altitudes and δ 18O of seeds was found in four of five species tested. The slope of regression lines tended to be lower in late‐fruiting species. The GLMM analysis revealed that altitudes and date of fruiting peak negatively affected δ 18O of seeds. These results indicate that the estimation of vertical seed dispersal using δ 18O of seeds can be applicable for various species, not just confined to specific taxa, by identifying the altitudes of plants that produced seeds. The results also suggest that the regression line between altitudes and δ 18O of seeds is rather species specific and that vertical seed dispersal in late‐fruiting species is estimated at a low resolution due to their small regression slopes. A future study on the identification of environmental factors and plant traits that cause a difference in δ 18O of seeds, combined with an improvement of analysis, will lead to effective evaluation of vertical seed dispersal in various species and thereby promote our understanding about the mechanism and ecological functions of vertical seed dispersal.

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Seeds at risk: How will a changing alpine climate affect regeneration from seeds in alpine areas?

Cited by 43 publications

References 82 publications

Climatic warming strengthens a positive feedback between alpine shrubs and fire

Climatic warming strengthens a positive feedback between alpine shrubs and fire

Inconclusive Predictions and Contradictions: A Lack of Consensus on Seed Germination Response to Climate Change at High Altitude and High Latitude

Negative correlation between altitudes and oxygen isotope ratios of seeds: exploring its applicability to assess vertical seed dispersal

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