Alpine BotanyPub Date : 2025-02-26DOI: 10.1007/s00035-025-00328-0
Hannah Inniger, Daniel Prati, Markus Fischer
{"title":"Relationships between population size and fitness in four common and four rare alpine plant species","authors":"Hannah Inniger, Daniel Prati, Markus Fischer","doi":"10.1007/s00035-025-00328-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-025-00328-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Due to habitat fragmentation and climate change, many plant populations become smaller and more isolated and thus more prone to local extinction. Whereas it is well established for lowland species that plants of small populations have lower individual fitness, alpine species have not been sufficiently studied in this respect. It is also not clear whether relationships between population size and fitness vary between naturally rare and common species. We assessed how population size and rarity affect seed set, seed mass, seed number, total seed mass per fruit, germination, time to germination, offspring survival and offspring size in four congeneric alpine plant species pairs (<i>Androsace chamaejasme</i> Wulfen, <i>A. puberula</i> Jord. & Fourr., <i>Primulaceae</i>; <i>Gentiana acaulis</i> L., <i>G. alpina</i> Vill., <i>Gentianaceae</i>; <i>Potentilla crantzii</i> (Crantz) Fritsch, <i>P. nivea</i> L., <i>Rosaceae</i>; <i>Viola calcarata</i> L., <i>V. lutea</i> Huds., <i>Violaceae</i>). Across all eight species, plants from smaller populations produced fewer seeds and had lower total seed mass per fruit than plants from larger populations. This demonstrates that population size also affects fitness in alpine species. Rare species did not have lower individual fitness than common species. Therefore, naturally rare species might be well adapted to their environment. Relationships between population size and fitness were equally pronounced in rare and common species. We conclude that plant fitness is reduced in small populations in alpine species, also in common species.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 1","pages":"7 - 18"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00035-025-00328-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144074123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alpine BotanyPub Date : 2025-02-09DOI: 10.1007/s00035-025-00327-1
Fabio Oriani, Helge Aasen, Manuel K. Schneider
{"title":"Different growth response of mountain rangeland habitats to inter-annual weather fluctuations","authors":"Fabio Oriani, Helge Aasen, Manuel K. Schneider","doi":"10.1007/s00035-025-00327-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-025-00327-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Monitoring mountain rangelands is crucial for ensuring the sustainability of pastoral land use. In this study, we employ satellite image analysis to investigate how the seasonal growth patterns in the mountain rangeland ecosystem respond to inter-annual variations in weather conditions along the elevation profile. Our analysis covers nine key habitats in mountain rangelands surrounding the Swiss National Park, southeastern Swiss Alps from 2000 to 2800 m of elevation. Using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to track the growth pattern from 2016 to 2023 reveals that inter-annual weather fluctuations affect all habitats, leading to variations of 15–20% in the growth curve, with more significant impacts observed in the first half of the growing season. When comparing growth among habitats, wet and mesic pastures tend to exhibit greater growth compared to dry habitats within the elevation range of 2000–2400 m above sea level, while all habitats show a similar growth above 2400 m. Additionally, the presented statistical analysis at the landscape scale supports the existence of growth dynamics previously observed at the plot scale: that snow persistence influences the beginning of growth in pastures, but this effect is partially compensated by rapid growth following late snow melt. Conversely, in the second half of the season, growth is controlled by the onset of snow in autumn. These results demonstrate the potential of the joint application of earth observation and spatial statistics, not only to monitor the regional response to climate trends and variability, but also to differentiate inter-annual and inter-habitat responses of growth dynamics.</p>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 1","pages":"33 - 50"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00035-025-00327-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144073982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alpine BotanyPub Date : 2025-01-11DOI: 10.1007/s00035-024-00326-8
Mery L. Suni, Giovana P. Vadillo, Gerson E. Prado, Liscely Tumi, Paul M. Ramsay
{"title":"A developmental classification system for the comparison of Puya raimondii giant Andean rosettes","authors":"Mery L. Suni, Giovana P. Vadillo, Gerson E. Prado, Liscely Tumi, Paul M. Ramsay","doi":"10.1007/s00035-024-00326-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-024-00326-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><i>Puya raimondii</i> Harms, an endangered giant bromeliad, has great ecological and cultural significance in the Central Andes. To help studies of population size structure in this species, this study proposes a rapid classification system based on plant developmental stages instead of using absolute size measurements, and applies it to three populations in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru. Plant height, stem height, total and photosynthetically-active rosette diameter and height to the base of the rosette were measured, to illustrate how the developmental stages compare. Five plant developmental stages were identified in the study: juvenile, subadult, adult, reproductive adult, and senescent reproductive adult. The juvenile stage could, in future, be further divided into smaller, vulnerable plants and more established juveniles, but this requires more detailed study to determine appropriate distinguishing developmental criteria. Comparing locations, <i>Puya</i> plants in Queshque were smaller than in the other locations, across all developmental stages. This study provides an efficient and informative classification system for <i>P. raimondii</i> giant rosettes, using well-defined developmental stages, that can reveal important differences between populations and prompt the generation of new hypotheses about the ecology of these important plants. The classification system could be applied in populations across the species’ distributional range in the Central Andes to explore how age, size and environmental factors affect growth and development in this species.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 1","pages":"107 - 119"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144073684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alpine BotanyPub Date : 2025-01-06DOI: 10.1007/s00035-024-00325-9
Haruka Kobayashi, Gaku Kudo, Karibu Fukuzawa, Osamu Seki, Kobayashi Makoto
{"title":"Belowground traits significantly differ between decreasing and increasing plant species in alpine meadows: implications for vegetation response to climate change","authors":"Haruka Kobayashi, Gaku Kudo, Karibu Fukuzawa, Osamu Seki, Kobayashi Makoto","doi":"10.1007/s00035-024-00325-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-024-00325-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Understanding the relationships between functional traits and changes in the abundance of plant species is essential for estimating future species composition under climate change. Previous studies on the trait-based approach have attempted to explain plant performance using either aboveground or belowground traits at either the organ level or the whole-plant level. To understand the species-specific responses to climate change, however, it is crucial to examine various traits simultaneously and comprehensively, including both organ level and whole-plant-level traits of aboveground and belowground parts, within the same study. Changes in the abundance of plant species have been recorded in an alpine meadow of the Taisetsu Mountains, northern Japan, over a 40-year period. Based on the previous studies, we selected 4 species with decreasing trends and 8 species with increasing trend. Then, we compared 26 functional traits between the decreasing and increasing species to understand the underlying mechanisms that drove the different changes in abundance. Compared to the decreasing species, the increasing species had larger rhizomes and longer and thinner fine roots, suggesting that drought tolerance may be a key factor in understanding the differences in the abundance of alpine meadow plants. Our study demonstrated that belowground traits at the whole-plant level, as well as at the organ level, played essential roles in species-specific abundance changes in alpine meadow plants. This means that belowground traits are a crucial component predicting the changes in species diversity of alpine vegetation under global warming.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 1","pages":"65 - 78"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144073938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alpine BotanyPub Date : 2025-01-03DOI: 10.1007/s00035-024-00324-w
Laura Milena Manrique-Garzón, Tia-Lynn Ashman, Emilio Realpe, Eloisa Lasso
{"title":"A study of páramo plant-pollinator interactions on the sky islands of Colombia: specialization, modularity, and species roles","authors":"Laura Milena Manrique-Garzón, Tia-Lynn Ashman, Emilio Realpe, Eloisa Lasso","doi":"10.1007/s00035-024-00324-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-024-00324-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Plant-pollinator interactions are crucial for reproduction of both angiosperms and their pollinators, and consequently influence ecological and evolutionary dynamics of diverse ecosystems globally. These interactions range from specialized (involving few species) to generalized (involving many species), with the former being more vulnerable to disturbances because the loss of one member can lead to the disappearance of its mutualist. Thus, understanding the relationships of plant-pollinator interaction networks provide information about ecosystem resilience. It has been hypothesized that the tropics will have specialist pollination systems because of their higher diversity. However, little is known about pollination systems in the tropics, especially at high altitudes. We examined the plant-pollinator network within a Colombian páramo—an alpine tropical ecosystem—through a phytocentric sampling strategy spanning 22 months, including 305 h of direct observation and 3689 h of camera trapping, focusing on 36 common plant species. A total of 90 pollinator morphospecies were documented, including hummingbirds, bats, hymenopterans, dipterans, lepidopterans, coleopterans, and hemipterans. The network was modular (8 modules) and moderately specialized (H2′ = 0.45), yet with many generalist species (pollinator d′ = 0.36; plant d′ = 0.43), but low connectivity (0.10) and low nestedness (9.2). Modularity analysis identified 19 morphospecies pivotal to the network`s integrity including <i>Bombus rubicundus</i> as a network hub. Comparisons with Venezuelan and Costa Rican páramos suggest that the Colombian páramo's higher pollinator diversity may confer greater stability, though the potential loss of any of the hub and connector species could have cascading effects on extinction processes, making their conservation a priority.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 1","pages":"91 - 105"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144073749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alpine BotanyPub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1007/s00035-024-00322-y
Ana Valdés-Florido, Inés Gómez, Marcial Escudero, Enrique Maguilla, Modesto Luceño, Pedro Jiménez-Mejías, Carmen Benítez-Benítez
{"title":"Genomic and ecological insights into phylogeography: the complex history of the widespread herb Carex nigra (Cyperaceae) revisited","authors":"Ana Valdés-Florido, Inés Gómez, Marcial Escudero, Enrique Maguilla, Modesto Luceño, Pedro Jiménez-Mejías, Carmen Benítez-Benítez","doi":"10.1007/s00035-024-00322-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-024-00322-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><i>Carex nigra</i> is a widespread sedge in the northern hemisphere. Some subspecies have been proposed within <i>C. nigra</i> s.l., reflecting the complex morphological and biogeographical variability within the group. Given this variability and its widespread distribution, we aim to (i) study the phylogeography of <i>C. nigra</i> s.l. by reconstructing the evolutionary relationship of its populations across the entire range, (ii) study its genetic structure and demographic history, and (iii) model the species and main lineages niche and infer their potential distributions. We sequenced RADseq markers for 75 populations representatively covering the entire range of the species and addressed phylogenetic, genetic, and demographic analyses using the software IQTREE, Structure and G-PhoCS, respectively. We modelled species and main lineages potential distributions, including projections to the Pliocene and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) using different algorithms (Maximum Entropy algorithm (Maxent), generalized additive models (GAM), Random Forest and generalized linear models (GLM)). The phylogeny was retrieved with high support, confirming the monophyly of the species. We identified three main lineages that could be associated to three monophyletic subspecies: subsp. <i>nigra</i>, subsp. <i>intricata</i> and subsp. <i>transcaucasica</i>. The genetic analyses showed two and four optimal genetic clusters lacking any specific pattern, while the demographic analyses showed genomic migration events among the three subspecies. The species distribution models retrieved the potential distribution of <i>C. nigra</i> complex for the Pliocene and of the three subspecies for the present and the LGM. Additionally, we also recognize climatic refugia during the Quaternary glaciations which could have favored the diversification of the subspecies.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 1","pages":"19 - 31"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144073906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alpine BotanyPub Date : 2024-08-30DOI: 10.1007/s00035-024-00321-z
Jerónimo Vázquez-Ramírez, Brodie Verrall, Emily Newling, Tricia Wevill, Catherine Pickering, Ken Green, Jessica A. Rowland, Susanna E. Venn
{"title":"Soil seed banks reveal the legacy of shifting plant assemblages in late-lying alpine snowpatch communities","authors":"Jerónimo Vázquez-Ramírez, Brodie Verrall, Emily Newling, Tricia Wevill, Catherine Pickering, Ken Green, Jessica A. Rowland, Susanna E. Venn","doi":"10.1007/s00035-024-00321-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-024-00321-z","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Snowpatch plant communities, which occur in parts of alpine landscapes where snow accumulates and persists well into the summer, are highly sensitive to climate change. The formation of persistent soil seed banks is recognised as a critical component of a plant community’s resilience to a changing environment. However, our understanding of the ecology of snowpatch soil seed banks and their potential role in the persistence of these threatened communities remains limited. To address this knowledge gap, we (1) characterised the density, diversity and composition of snowpatch soil seed banks along a snowmelt gradient (with early, mid, and late melt zones defined); and (2) contrasted their similarity with long-term vegetation surveys (2020, 2013, 2007) to assess the relationship between soil seed banks and standing vegetation over time. We found persistent soil seed banks in all snowmelt zones and that the snowmelt gradient significantly influenced their density, diversity and composition. Species density and diversity in soil seed banks were higher in the early and mid zones compared to the late zone. However, seedlings from the late zone emerged faster and more synchronously than those emerging from the early and mid zones. The species similarity between seed banks and standing vegetation was relatively high in the two most recent surveys (2020, 2013) compared to the initial survey (2007). However, the composition of life forms and regeneration strategies (i.e. sexual or vegetative reproduction) of seedlings that emerged from the soil seed banks was more similar to the composition of the initial standing vegetation survey (2007) than to the more recent surveys (2020, 2013). Our results suggest that although soil seed banks may be changing as the standing vegetation changes, they still have a compositional similarity to historical plant assemblages, contributing to the resilience of these endangered communities to climate change.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 1","pages":"135 - 147"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00035-024-00321-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142175479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alpine BotanyPub Date : 2024-08-20DOI: 10.1007/s00035-024-00320-0
Steffen Boch, Stefan Blaser, Christine Föhr, Meinrad Küchler, Markus Fischer
{"title":"Haymaking complemented by moderate disturbances can sustain and restore species-rich alpine to subalpine grasslands","authors":"Steffen Boch, Stefan Blaser, Christine Föhr, Meinrad Küchler, Markus Fischer","doi":"10.1007/s00035-024-00320-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-024-00320-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The high plant diversity in alpine to subalpine grasslands is threatened by the abandonment of land use. In addition, changing environmental conditions might lead to vegetation shifts even when traditional land use is maintained, as observed in grasslands in Switzerland during the last decades. Maintaining and restoring the diversity of such grasslands might therefore require modified management methods. We conducted a six-year experiment to assess the responses of plant species richness, mean ecological indicator values, and vegetation composition to five management treatments, including scraping as additional management measure: haymaking (in autumn), haymaking complemented by scraping (i.e. manual raking) in autumn, haymaking complemented by scraping in spring, only scraping in spring, and abandonment of land use. We hypothesized that haymaking complemented by scraping in either season would remove additional biomass and increase species richness by creating open patches that can reduce inter-specific competition and promote species establishment. We found positive effects of haymaking complemented by scraping on plant species richness and habitat quality, indicated by the increased mean indicator value for light. Abandonment showed the opposite effects and increased mean indicator values for nutrients. Interestingly, haymaking combined with scraping in autumn promoted the development of the vegetation towards the composition similar to the resident vegetation type. Our findings show that extensive land use is essential to maintain species-rich alpine to subalpine grasslands. Further, they imply that modified land use can compensate for the negative developments such as reduced habitat quality and species richness caused by environmental changes and help restore the vegetation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 1","pages":"121 - 134"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00035-024-00320-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142175480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}