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Life stage, not climate change, explains observed tree range shifts
- 1.0463974 - BÚ 2017 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Máliš, F. - Kopecký, Martin - Petřík, Petr - Vladovič, J. - Merganič, J. - Vida, T.
Life stage, not climate change, explains observed tree range shifts.
Global Change Biology. Roč. 22, č. 5 (2016), s. 1904-1914. ISSN 1354-1013. E-ISSN 1365-2486
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT(CZ) EE2.3.20.0267; GA ČR GPP505/10/P173
EU Projects: European Commission(XE) 278065 - LONGWOOD
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : elevational range shift * vegetation resurvey * temperate forests
Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour
Impact factor: 8.502, year: 2016
The distribution of tree life stages could differ within the lifespan of trees, therefore, we hypothesize that currently observed distributional differences could represent shifts over ontogeny as opposed to climatically driven changes. We tested this hypothesis with data from 1435 plots resurveyed after more than three decades across the Western Carpathians and analyzed (i) temporal shifts between the surveys and (ii) distributional differences between tree life stages within both surveys. Despite climate warming, tree species distribution of any life stage did not shift directionally upward along elevation between the surveys. Temporal elevational shifts were species specific and an order of magnitude lower than differences among tree life stages within the surveys. Our results show that the observed range shifts among tree life stages are more consistent with ontogenetic differences in the species’ environmental requirements than with responses to recent climate change. Future research has to take ontogenetic differences among life stages into account as we found that distributional differences recently observed worldwide may not reflect climate change but rather the different environmental requirements of tree life stages.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0264688
Number of the records: 1