Changes in taxonomic and functional composition of subalpine plant communities in response to climate change under contrasting conditions of bedrock and snow cover duration

Abstract

AbstractQuestionsWe assessed interactions between climate change, bedrock types and snow cover duration on the trajectories of taxonomic and functional composition of subalpine plant communities. We predict (i) an increase in species richness on siliceous bedrock due to a reduced competition and a decrease in richness on calcareous bedrock due to increasing drought stress; (ii) decreasing snow cover duration should induce a higher shrub encroachment in hollows as compared to ridges; and (iii) increasing growing season temperature should induce taller sizes and more conservative growth traits, in particular in hollows.LocationSubalpine belt of the Grandes Rousses mountain range, southwestern Alps (France).Methods189 vegetation plots were sampled in 1997 and 2017–2018. The duration of snow cover was assessed during two years in 1995–1997 and five functional traits were measured on 108 species in 2021. We performed multivariate analyses, quantified community‐weighted means (CWM) of traits and used ANOVAs to detect responses to local‐scale factors and changes in snow cover, temperature and precipitation since 1997 according to a nearby meteorological station.ResultsOverall, taxonomic composition weakly changed and changes were more dependent on the position of communities along the snow cover duration gradient than on their bedrock type. The abundance of drought‐tolerant species increased at the border of hollows and there was, over all communities, a slight increase in the abundance of dwarf shrubs and tall herbaceous species, a strong decrease in short herbaceous species and, thus, an overall decrease in species richness. There were important overall changes in CWM of size traits, in particular leaf area which increased the most in hollows irrespective of bedrock types.ConclusionIn this subalpine site the effects of decreasing snow cover duration overwhelmed the effects of bedrocks, which may explain the overall increase in competitive species and decrease in species richness.