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The Changbai Alpine Shrub Tundra Will Be Replaced by Herbaceous Tundra under Global Climate Change

Significant replacement of shrub species by herbaceous species has been observed in the Changbai alpine tundra zone, China, since the 1990s. This study used plot surveys to analyze variations in the spatial distribution of dominant plants and to ascertain the changing mechanisms of dominant species...

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Autores principales: Jin, Yinghua, Xu, Jiawei, He, Hongshi, Li, Mai-He, Tao, Yan, Zhang, Yingjie, Hu, Rui, Gao, Xiang, Bai, Yunyu, Wang, Huiyun, Han, Yingying
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6843343/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31557891
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants8100370
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author Jin, Yinghua
Xu, Jiawei
He, Hongshi
Li, Mai-He
Tao, Yan
Zhang, Yingjie
Hu, Rui
Gao, Xiang
Bai, Yunyu
Wang, Huiyun
Han, Yingying
author_facet Jin, Yinghua
Xu, Jiawei
He, Hongshi
Li, Mai-He
Tao, Yan
Zhang, Yingjie
Hu, Rui
Gao, Xiang
Bai, Yunyu
Wang, Huiyun
Han, Yingying
author_sort Jin, Yinghua
collection PubMed
description Significant replacement of shrub species by herbaceous species has been observed in the Changbai alpine tundra zone, China, since the 1990s. This study used plot surveys to analyze variations in the spatial distribution of dominant plants and to ascertain the changing mechanisms of dominant species in the alpine tundra zone. We found that the two previously dominant shrubs, Rhododendron chrysanthum and Vaccinium uliginosum, differed markedly in their distribution characteristics. The former had the highest abundance and the lowest coefficient of variation, skewness, and kurtosis, and the latter showed the opposite results, while the six herb species invaded had intermediate values. R. chrysanthum still had a relatively uniform distribution, while the herbaceous species and V. uliginosum had a patch distribution deviating from the normal distribution in the tundra zone. Micro-topography and slope grade had stronger effects on the spatial distribution of the eight plant species than elevation. Herbs tended to easily replace the shrubs on a semi-sunny slope aspect, steep slope, and depression. Overall, the dominance of dwarf shrubs declined, while the herbaceous species have encroached and expanded on the alpine tundra zone and have become co-dominant plant species. Our results suggest that various micro-topographic factors associated with variations in climatic and edaphic conditions determine the spatial distribution of plants in the alpine tundra zone. Future climate warming may cause decreased snow thickness, increased growing season length, and drought stress, which may further promote replacement of the shrubs by herbs, which shows retrogressive vegetation successions in the Changbai alpine tundra zone. Further studies need to focus on the physio-ecological mechanisms underlying the vegetation change and species replacement in the alpine tundra area under global climate change.
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spelling pubmed-68433432019-11-25 The Changbai Alpine Shrub Tundra Will Be Replaced by Herbaceous Tundra under Global Climate Change Jin, Yinghua Xu, Jiawei He, Hongshi Li, Mai-He Tao, Yan Zhang, Yingjie Hu, Rui Gao, Xiang Bai, Yunyu Wang, Huiyun Han, Yingying Plants (Basel) Article Significant replacement of shrub species by herbaceous species has been observed in the Changbai alpine tundra zone, China, since the 1990s. This study used plot surveys to analyze variations in the spatial distribution of dominant plants and to ascertain the changing mechanisms of dominant species in the alpine tundra zone. We found that the two previously dominant shrubs, Rhododendron chrysanthum and Vaccinium uliginosum, differed markedly in their distribution characteristics. The former had the highest abundance and the lowest coefficient of variation, skewness, and kurtosis, and the latter showed the opposite results, while the six herb species invaded had intermediate values. R. chrysanthum still had a relatively uniform distribution, while the herbaceous species and V. uliginosum had a patch distribution deviating from the normal distribution in the tundra zone. Micro-topography and slope grade had stronger effects on the spatial distribution of the eight plant species than elevation. Herbs tended to easily replace the shrubs on a semi-sunny slope aspect, steep slope, and depression. Overall, the dominance of dwarf shrubs declined, while the herbaceous species have encroached and expanded on the alpine tundra zone and have become co-dominant plant species. Our results suggest that various micro-topographic factors associated with variations in climatic and edaphic conditions determine the spatial distribution of plants in the alpine tundra zone. Future climate warming may cause decreased snow thickness, increased growing season length, and drought stress, which may further promote replacement of the shrubs by herbs, which shows retrogressive vegetation successions in the Changbai alpine tundra zone. Further studies need to focus on the physio-ecological mechanisms underlying the vegetation change and species replacement in the alpine tundra area under global climate change. MDPI 2019-09-25 /pmc/articles/PMC6843343/ /pubmed/31557891 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants8100370 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Jin, Yinghua
Xu, Jiawei
He, Hongshi
Li, Mai-He
Tao, Yan
Zhang, Yingjie
Hu, Rui
Gao, Xiang
Bai, Yunyu
Wang, Huiyun
Han, Yingying
The Changbai Alpine Shrub Tundra Will Be Replaced by Herbaceous Tundra under Global Climate Change
title The Changbai Alpine Shrub Tundra Will Be Replaced by Herbaceous Tundra under Global Climate Change
title_full The Changbai Alpine Shrub Tundra Will Be Replaced by Herbaceous Tundra under Global Climate Change
title_fullStr The Changbai Alpine Shrub Tundra Will Be Replaced by Herbaceous Tundra under Global Climate Change
title_full_unstemmed The Changbai Alpine Shrub Tundra Will Be Replaced by Herbaceous Tundra under Global Climate Change
title_short The Changbai Alpine Shrub Tundra Will Be Replaced by Herbaceous Tundra under Global Climate Change
title_sort changbai alpine shrub tundra will be replaced by herbaceous tundra under global climate change
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6843343/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31557891
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants8100370
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