Repeat photography reveals long-term climate change impacts on sub-Antarctic tundra vegetation

IF 2.2 3区环境科学与生态学 Q2 ECOLOGY

Journal of Vegetation Science Pub Date : 2024-12-04 DOI:10.1111/jvs.70002

Stephni van der Merwe, Michelle Greve, Michael Timm Hoffman, Andrew Luke Skowno, Nita Pallett, Aleks Terauds, Steven Louden Chown, Michael Denis Cramer

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Questions

At high latitudes, anthropogenic climate change and invasive species threaten biodiversity, often with interacting effects. Climate change not only impacts native plant species directly by driving distribution and abundance of species, but indirectly through the influence on community dynamics and habitat suitability to invasive species. A key obstacle to quantifying vegetation change in the sub-Antarctic is the scarcity of cloud-free satellite imagery in a region with near-permanent cloud cover and lack of long-term plot data. In this paper, we aim to address the following questions: how has vegetation in the sub-Antarctic changed between 1965 and 2020? What are the roles of climate change and invasive species in driving these changes?

Location

The study was conducted on Marion Island in the sub-Antarctica.

Methods

We quantified vegetation change by analysing repeat ground photography between 1965 and 2020, accompanied by an analysis of climate trends and invasive plant species’ cover changes over the same period.

Results

Total vegetation cover was significantly higher in 2020 than in 1965 in all habitats other than in the coastal saltspray habitat, indicating an increase in overall biomass on the island. The more responsive ‘generalist’ plant species have expanded across the island, whilst the more ‘specialised’ plant species have not significantly changed in cover, with the exception of the mire graminoids, which have declined. Marion Island has thus undergone significant vegetation change, showing a greening trend across most habitats in the last five decades. This has been accompanied by aridification, an increase in mean air temperature, changes in wind direction and wind speed, and an increase in invasive mouse populations. The three most widespread invasive plant species have also expanded their ranges, especially in areas influenced by animal disturbance and nutrient input.

Conclusions

In congruence with research from Northern-hemisphere tundra and other islands in the sub-Antarctic, these results provide substantive empirical evidence for the interacting effects of climate change and invasive species on sub-Antarctic tundra vegetation, as has long been predicted.

Abstract Image

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重复摄影揭示了气候变化对亚南极苔原植被的长期影响

在高纬度地区，人为的气候变化和入侵物种威胁着生物多样性，往往是相互作用的。气候变化不仅通过驱动物种的分布和丰度直接影响本土植物物种，而且通过影响群落动态和对入侵物种的生境适宜性间接影响本土植物物种。量化亚南极植被变化的一个关键障碍是，在一个几乎永久云量覆盖的地区缺乏无云卫星图像，而且缺乏长期的地块数据。在本文中，我们的目标是解决以下问题：亚南极的植被在1965年至2020年间是如何变化的？气候变化和入侵物种在推动这些变化中的作用是什么？该研究是在亚南极洲的马里恩岛进行的。方法通过分析1965 - 2020年的重复地面摄影，同时分析同期的气候趋势和入侵植物物种的覆盖变化，对植被变化进行量化。结果2020年除沿海盐雾生境外，其他生境的植被覆盖度均显著高于1965年，表明岛上总生物量有所增加。更敏感的“通才”植物物种在整个岛屿上扩张，而更“专门化”的植物物种在覆盖范围上没有明显变化，除了沼泽禾本科植物，它们已经下降。因此，在过去的50年里，马里恩岛经历了显著的植被变化，在大多数栖息地显示出绿化趋势。这伴随着干旱化，平均气温升高，风向和风速的变化，以及入侵老鼠数量的增加。三种分布最广的入侵植物也扩大了它们的活动范围，特别是在受动物干扰和养分输入影响的地区。结论与北半球冻土带和亚南极其他岛屿的研究结果一致，为气候变化和入侵物种对亚南极冻土带植被的相互作用提供了实质性的经验证据。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Vegetation Science 环境科学-林学

CiteScore

6.00

自引率

3.60%

发文量

审稿时长

2 months

期刊介绍： The Journal of Vegetation Science publishes papers on all aspects of plant community ecology, with particular emphasis on papers that develop new concepts or methods, test theory, identify general patterns, or that are otherwise likely to interest a broad international readership. Papers may focus on any aspect of vegetation science, e.g. community structure (including community assembly and plant functional types), biodiversity (including species richness and composition), spatial patterns (including plant geography and landscape ecology), temporal changes (including demography, community dynamics and palaeoecology) and processes (including ecophysiology), provided the focus is on increasing our understanding of plant communities. The Journal publishes papers on the ecology of a single species only if it plays a key role in structuring plant communities. Papers that apply ecological concepts, theories and methods to the vegetation management, conservation and restoration, and papers on vegetation survey should be directed to our associate journal, Applied Vegetation Science journal.