Extreme climate events counteract the effects of climate and land-use changes in Alpine tree lines.

Published online
12 Apr 2017
Content type
Journal article
Journal title
Journal of Applied Ecology
DOI
10.1111/1365-2664.12742

Author(s)
Barros, C. & Guéguen, M. & Douzet, R. & Carboni, M. & Boulangeat, I. & Zimmermann, N. E. & Münkemüller, T. & Thuiller, W.
Contact email(s)
ceres.barros@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

Publication language
English
Location
Europe

Abstract

Climate change and extreme events, such as drought, threaten ecosystems world-wide and in particular mountain ecosystems, where species often live at their environmental tolerance limits. In the European Alps, plant communities are also influenced by land-use abandonment leading to woody encroachment of subalpine and alpine grasslands. In this study, we explored how the forest-grassland ecotone of Alpine tree lines will respond to gradual climate warming, drought events and land-use change in terms of forest expansion rates, taxonomic diversity and functional composition. We used a previously validated dynamic vegetation model, FATE-HD, parameterized for plant communities in the Ecrins National Park in the French Alps. Our results showed that intense drought counteracted the forest expansion at higher elevations driven by land-use abandonment and climate change, especially when combined with high drought frequency (occurring every 2 or less than 2 years). Furthermore, intense and frequent drought accelerated the rates of taxonomic change and resulted in overall higher taxonomic spatial heterogeneity of the ecotone than would be expected under gradual climate and land-use changes only. Synthesis and applications. The results from our model show that intense and frequent drought counteracts forest expansion driven by climate and land-use changes in the forest-grassland ecotone of Alpine tree lines. We argue that land-use planning must consider the effects of extreme events, such as drought, as well as climate and land-use changes, since extreme events might interfere with trends predicted under gradual climate warming and agricultural abandonment.

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