Unsuspected prevalence of Pinus cembra in the high-elevation sky islands of the western Alps

Gilles, André; Lavergne, Sébastien; Carcaillet, Christopher

doi:10.1007/s11258-023-01341-1

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 50 publications

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“…12.1 therein). In a recent assessment of highest elevations of Pinus cembra (André et al 2023;LFI 2023), a number of tree individuals reached > 2 m height above 2800 m in the Western Alps in France. For the Valais, the highest located individual of Pinus cembra (2.9-m height) was spotted at 2740 m (LFI 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid advance of climatic tree limits in the Eastern Alps explained by on-site temperatures

Körner,

Hiltbrunner

2024

Reg Environ Change

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In the European Alps, mean temperature has risen by 2.5 K since the end of the nineteenth century. A 2 K warming of the growing season has taken place in the last 4 decades only. The 2.5 K warming should rise the position of the climatic treeline by about 400 m. Actual shifts in uppermost tree positions reported here for the Austrian Defereggen Valley and the Swiss Lower Engadine region of the Eastern Alps reach only around 140 m of elevation above the limit of old trees that date back to the nineteenth century. Uppermost Pinus cembra trees of > 2 m height currently occur at c. 2500 m, representing elevation records for the Eastern Alps. In situ temperature records for 2022–2023 revealed seasonal mean temperatures for uppermost trees that are 1–3 K higher than the equilibrium treeline isotherm of c. 6 °C in both regions (corrected for temperature anomalies from long-term records). The 2 K span reflects microhabitat differences and two ways to define the season. Thus, tree advances lag behind the upslope shift of the treeline isotherm, on average, by more than 200 m. The uppermost trees currently grow under quite warm conditions with annual shoot length increments frequently reaching 20 cm. Even without additional future warming, the new steady-state climatic treeline will exceed the Holocene maximum elevation in the Eastern Alps substantially.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid advance of climatic tree limits in the Eastern Alps explained by on-site temperatures

Körner,

Hiltbrunner

2024

Reg Environ Change

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Genetic underpinning of historical afforestation with allochthonous Pinus cembra in the northwestern Swiss Alps

Sonnenwyl,

Dauphin,

Fragnière

et al. 2023

Alp Botany

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Throughout the last centuries, the structure and genetic composition of forests have been strongly affected by forest management. Over 30% of European forests are artificially regenerated, very often using translocated forest reproductive material, among these species the Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra L.). In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the species was largely used for artificial afforestation in the northern Alps. However, only a few planted trees have survived. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate if the historical afforestation of P. cembra in the northwestern Swiss Alps relied on allochthonous material. We sampled 12 sites, genotyping 11 nuclear microsatellites, to infer the spatial genetic structure of regional populations, to test for genetic differences between natural and planted stands, and to infer potential source regions of planted stands using reference samples covering the entire Alps. Population genetic structure analysis allowed us to distinguish planted from natural stands and to determine that forest reproductive material used for plantations was not of regional origin. We found similar levels of genetic diversity between natural and planted stands. Assignment tests revealed that reproductive material for planting was translocated to the study area from two source regions, i.e., near the border of Switzerland and Austria, and further to the East, between Austria and Italy. Our study shows how genetic tools may inform about historical transfer of forest reproductive material, which still may affect the population genetic make-up of regional occurrences, e.g., because of reduced natural regeneration.

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Temperature-induced germination pulses above the alpine tree line

Palosse,

Piermattei,

Esper

et al. 2024

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

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Unsuspected prevalence of Pinus cembra in the high-elevation sky islands of the western Alps

Cited by 4 publications

References 50 publications

Rapid advance of climatic tree limits in the Eastern Alps explained by on-site temperatures

Rapid advance of climatic tree limits in the Eastern Alps explained by on-site temperatures

Genetic underpinning of historical afforestation with allochthonous Pinus cembra in the northwestern Swiss Alps

Temperature-induced germination pulses above the alpine tree line

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