Alpine treeline and timberline dynamics during the Holocene in the Northern Romanian Carpathians

Abstract

High altitude environments (treeline and alpine communities) are particularly sensitive to climate changes, disturbances and land-use changes due to their limited tolerance and adaptability range, habitat fragmentation and habitat restriction. The current and future climate warming is anticipated to shift the tree- and timberlines upwards thus affecting alpine plant communities and causing land-cover change and fragmentation of alpine habitats. An upslope movement of some trees, shrubs and cold adapted alpine herbs as a response to the current climate warming has already been noted in many montane and subalpine regions. Four Holocene peat and lacustrine sediment sequences located between 1670 and 1918 m a.s.l. (Fig.1), in the Rodna Mountains (Northern Romania, Eastern Carpathians) are used with the aim to determine: i) the sensitivity of high mountain habitats to climate, fire and land use changes; ii) tree- and timberline shifts: and iii) the influence of landscape topography on trees and shrubs.