Abstract

We studied the impact of simulated global change on a high alpine meadow plant community. Specifically, we examined whether short-term (5 years) responses are good predictors for medium-term (7 years) changes in the system by applying a factorial warming and nutrient manipulation to 20 plots in Latnjajaure, subarctic Sweden. Seven years of experimental warming and nutrient enhancement caused dramatic shifts in dominance hierarchies in response to the nutrient and the combined warming and nutrient enhancement treatments. Dominance hierarchies in the meadow moved from a community being dominated by cushion plants, deciduous, and evergreen shrubs to a community being dominated by grasses, sedges, and forbs. Short-term responses were shown to be inconsistent in their ability to predict medium-term responses for most functional groups, however, grasses showed a consistent and very substantial increase in response to nutrient addition over the seven years. The non-linear responses over time point out the importance of longer-term studies with repeated measurements to be able to better predict future changes. Forecasted changes to temperature and nutrient availability have implications for trophic interactions, and may ultimately influence the access to and palatability of the forage for grazers. Depending on what anthropogenic change will be most pronounced in the future (increase in nutrient deposits, warming, or a combination of them both), different shifts in community dominance hierarchies may occur. Generally, this study supports the productivity–diversity relationship found across arctic habitats, with community diversity peaking in mid-productivity systems and degrading as nutrient availability increases further. This is likely due the increasing competition in plant–plant interactions and the shifting dominance structure with grasses taking over the experimental plots, suggesting that global change could have high costs to biodiversity in the Arctic.

Highlights

  • Global change is expected to lead to widespread biome and biodiversity shifts across spatial scales, from the regional to the global (Sala, Chapin & Armesto, 2000; Grimm et al, 2013)

  • Longevity may play a role, as short lived species have been predicted to be more sensitive to climate change than more long-lived species (Morris et al, 2008). This implies that many alpine and Arctic plant species could buffer against climate change due to their long-lived nature

  • The most notable responses to simulated global change came at the functional group level, where cover and diversity of some functional groups showed consistent short- and medium-term responses to perturbations while after seven years of perturbations others showed either recovery from their initial responses, or intensification of those responses

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Summary

Introduction

Global change is expected to lead to widespread biome and biodiversity shifts across spatial scales, from the regional to the global (Sala, Chapin & Armesto, 2000; Grimm et al, 2013). Analyses and meta-analyses of experimental warming in alpine and arctic systems found immediate phenological changes, short-term responses in terms of plant growth, and medium- and long-term responses in terms of plant reproduction and community structure (Arft et al, 1999; Van Wijk et al, 2004; Hollister, Webber & Tweedie, 2005) Nutrient enhancement in these systems produced short-term growth responses but were sometimes followed by declines in abundance (Dormann & Woodin, 2002; Campioli, Leblans & Michelsen, 2012). The long life span of arctic and alpine plants in combination with their capacity for sexual reproduction will determine their fate as evolutionary adaptation is a slow process in comparison with the projected pace of warming (Molau, 1993) It is questionable whether evolution can keep pace with climate change on global scale, increasing the extension risk (Jump & Penuelas, 2005; Parmesan, 2006)

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