Alpine Botany最新文献

{"title":"Cushion plants in the Alps are swarming with invertebrate life","authors":"Keyvan Dumas,&nbsp;Gabriel Marais,&nbsp;Samuel Paitreault,&nbsp;Jean-Noël Avrillier,&nbsp;Zoé Rosa,&nbsp;Mickaël Hedde,&nbsp;Jean-Yves Rasplus,&nbsp;Sarah Chérasse,&nbsp;David Ouvrard,&nbsp;Philippe Reynaud,&nbsp;Jean Trap,&nbsp;Ilyass Filali Alaoui,&nbsp;Franck Noël,&nbsp;Christophe Perrier,&nbsp;Glenn Yannic,&nbsp;Christiane Gallet,&nbsp;Nicolas Bernier,&nbsp;Sébastien Lavergne,&nbsp;Sébastien Ibanez","doi":"10.1007/s00035-025-00335-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-025-00335-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Cushion plants, which dominate nival ecosystems, are known to host a large diversity of plant, microbe, and animal life. However, a comprehensive assessment of this diversity is still lacking, particularly with regard to invertebrate soil fauna. In this study, we sampled soil beneath cushion plants in various climatic and geological conditions throughout the French Alps. Our results demonstrate that cushion plants host a remarkably high abundance and diversity of invertebrates, with some individual cushions hosting nearly 400 specimens belonging to 15 different families. Across all samples, 8845 specimens were found. The taxonomic diversity is particularly notable, with groups such as Collembola, Acari, and Nematoda, as well as Gastropoda, Diptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Hemiptera. In total, 44 different families were identified. In particular, our findings show that cushion plants not only function as habitats for adult invertebrates, but also as site for the egg laying and larval development of several insect groups, including Diptera, Hemiptera, and Lepidoptera. In addition, different species of cushion plant tend to host distinct invertebrate communities, which makes them a key driver spatial variation in invertebrate populations. However, the factors determining the alpha diversity of invertebrates assemblages in nival environments remain unclear. Overall, our results emphasize the key role of cushion plants in maintaining biodiversity in the nival vegetation belt.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 2","pages":"203 - 214"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145204605","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}

{"title":"How prevalent were nunataks as glacial refugia in the Alps? Insights from range hindcasting of the nival flora","authors":"Zoé Rosa,&nbsp;Hélene Blancheteau,&nbsp;Julien Renaud,&nbsp;Maya Guéguen,&nbsp;Bastien Féaud,&nbsp;Pierre G. Valla,&nbsp;Wilfried Thuiller,&nbsp;Sébastien Ibanez,&nbsp;Sébastien Lavergne","doi":"10.1007/s00035-025-00334-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-025-00334-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The European Alps were heavily glaciated during the Pleistocene, prompting debates about plants’ glacial refugia. While most alpine vegetation likely survived in lower mountain ranges, adjacent or disconnected from the Alps, or elsewhere in European lowlands, a century-old hypothesis suggests that some plants persisted on rocky peaks protruding from ice-covered areas. However, this so-called <i>“nunatak”</i> hypothesis has received relatively limited attention and support from phylogeographic studies. We modeled the potential distribution of 69 nival plant species during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, <i>circa</i> 20 to 25 ky ago) using species distribution models based on paleo-climatic conditions, paleo-ice extent, topographic metrics and bedrock lithologies. Two thirds of studied species and the majority of silicicolous species were predicted to have predominantly occurred on nunataks during the LGM in comparison to peripheral mountains or lowlands. Bedrock affinity, alongside topographic and climatic preferences, profoundly influenced predictions of species’ refugia locations and range contractions. Silicicolous species relied heavily on nunataks, where lithology and topographic ruggedness jointly favored their survival. Calcicolous species, in contrast, primarily found refugia in peripheral and extra-alpine massifs, the inner Alps being largely uninhabitable—either due to the extensive ice cover on calcareous massifs, often located at lower elevations, or because unglaciated ones were too unsuitable for their persistence. Generalist species, with broader ecological flexibility, persisted across more diverse refugia, favoring mainly the less harsh peripheral regions. Multivariate analyses identified seven cooccurring species groups associated with distinct potential refugia. Our findings challenge the view that nunatak refugia were undervalued during glacial periods, highlighting their significance for siliceous rock-specialist nival species. This work provides a well-delimited framework for further research on alpine paleobiogeography.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 2","pages":"149 - 166"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145204632","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}

{"title":"Genetic divergence of Clematis alpina in the Swiss Prealps: a tale of the margins","authors":"Sofia Stefani,&nbsp;Luca Champoud,&nbsp;Laurence Fazan,&nbsp;Michał Ronikier,&nbsp;Mathieu Perret,&nbsp;Gregor Kozlowski,&nbsp;Camille Christe","doi":"10.1007/s00035-025-00333-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-025-00333-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The alpine clematis (<i>Clematis alpina</i> L., Ranunculaceae) is a liana growing in mountain regions of northern Eurasia. In the European Alpine region, where the subspecies <i>C. alpina</i> subsp. <i>alpina</i> occurs, a few populations are isolated from the main range in the peripheral north-western Prealps, a relatively understudied but biogeographically important region. It has been shown that such edge populations could potentially contain a source of unique genetic variability that reflects past biogeographical and microevolutionary processes. We tested this hypothesis using sequence capture data and a large population sampling across the species range. We show that individuals from the north-western Prealps form a genetic cluster that is clearly distinct from the other individuals of the European subspecies <i>C. alpina</i> subsp. <i>alpina.</i> This cluster adds to two other geographically driven clusters with a larger spatial extent, that include populations from the rest of the Alps and from the Carpathians/Balkan Peninsula mountains, respectively. Genetic diversity indices such as inbreeding and nucleotide diversity are the highest and lowest, respectively, for the Prealps populations indicating a possible loss of diversity. Our results demonstrate the biogeographical importance of isolated, marginal populations as sources of distinctive lineages, and highlight the conservation value of the north-western Prealps populations of alpine clematis. They also point out the promising use of sequence capture of gene selected for studies at high phylogenetic level for studies at intraspecific level.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 2","pages":"167 - 185"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00035-025-00333-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145204604","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}

{"title":"Co-occurring Luzula species (Juncaceae) of different ploidies exhibit weak ecological differentiation at local scale in alpine grasslands of the Eastern Alps","authors":"Jonas Geurden,&nbsp;Valentin Heimer,&nbsp;Božo Frajman","doi":"10.1007/s00035-025-00331-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-025-00331-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><i>Luzula</i> sect. <i>Luzula</i> is a taxonomically challenging group of angiosperms, whose evolutionary history has been shaped by polyploidy and agmatoploidy (fragmentation of holocentric chromosomes). Several species with different chromosome sizes and numbers, ranging from diploids to hexaploids, occur above the timberline in the Eastern Alps. Species of different ploidies frequently co-occur in the same habitats, but the extent of ecological divergence and niche partitioning among them remains elusive, partly due to their high morphological similarity impeding reliable identification. Here, we focused on three mixed-ploidy sites in the Eastern Alps, where the morphologically similar alpine species <i>L. exspectata</i> (diploid), <i>L. alpina</i> (tetraploid) and <i>L. multiflora</i> (its hexaploid populations) co-occur in close vicinity. We inferred their ploidy via flow cytometry and characterised their small-scale ecological preferences using different ecological indicators like mean Landolt indicator values of accompanying plant species. While diploid <i>L. exspectata</i> is associated with slightly more basic microsite conditions, as it mostly occurs over limestone, no such differentiation was observed between tetraploid <i>L. alpina</i> and hexaploid <i>L. multiflora</i>. We provide evidence for broader niches of tetraploids compared to diploids, whereas tetra- and hexaploids exhibited no differences in niche width. Our results indicate that small-scale co-occurrence of different cytotypes within <i>Luzula</i> sect. <i>Luzula</i> in alpine habitats is accompanied by only a slight niche partitioning, whereas there were significant differences in ecological parameters among the sites. These findings emphasise the influence of geography and geology on ecological microsite conditions and suggest that in this species group, local niche divergence between ploidies is negligible compared to site-specific effects. Different ploidies thus likely have more divergent ecology at a distribution-wide scale than at a local scale.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 2","pages":"275 - 288"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00035-025-00331-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145204646","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}

{"title":"The morphological fit between flowers of Cypripedium calceolus L. and their visitors matters but does not explain flower size variations along altitude","authors":"Marie Hoensbroech,&nbsp;Stefan Dötterl,&nbsp;Herbert Braunschmid","doi":"10.1007/s00035-025-00330-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-025-00330-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Studies of floral adaptations in response to divergent pollinators are important for understanding floral evolution and diversification of plants. A plant exposed to a variable pollinator climate is <i>Cypripedium calceolus</i>, a threatened lady's-slipper orchid. Insect pollinators are temporarily trapped in the pouch-like labellum and escape via one of two small posterior exit holes. In escaping, they pass the stigma and an anther, depositing and collecting pollen, respectively. Successful pollination is thought to depend on the morphological fit between pollinators and flowers, with particularly thorax and exit heights being key traits. Too small insects might neither touch the stigma nor collect pollen when exiting, and too large insects do not fit through the exit but leave the flower through the entrance hole or die inside. To discern the likelihood of floral adaptations in <i>C. calceolus</i> to varying pollinator assemblages, we investigated (a) whether floral, vegetative, and insect traits change in a concerted manner along an altitudinal gradient, and whether the morphological fit affects (b) the escape mode of a visiting insect and (c) its probability of exporting pollen. We found that floral and vegetative traits of <i>C. calceolus</i> got smaller with altitude, while insect dimensions were similar across the sites. Hymenoptera, the main visitors, were more likely to escape via the exit and to export pollen when the fit was near-exact. This shows that the morphological fit plays a critical role in the pollination of <i>C. calceolus</i> and that pollinators have the potential to drive size-related floral adaptations<i>.</i></p></div>","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 2","pages":"215 - 226"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00035-025-00330-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145204606","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}

{"title":"The niche of Alpine Botany","authors":"Christian Parisod","doi":"10.1007/s00035-025-00329-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s00035-025-00329-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51238,"journal":{"name":"Alpine Botany","volume":"135 1","pages":"1 - 5"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00035-025-00329-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144073931","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}

{"title":"Relationships between population size and fitness in four common and four rare alpine plant species","authors":"Hannah Inniger,&nbsp;Daniel Prati,&nbsp;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. &amp; 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}

{"title":"Different growth response of mountain rangeland habitats to inter-annual weather fluctuations","authors":"Fabio Oriani,&nbsp;Helge Aasen,&nbsp;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}

{"title":"A developmental classification system for the comparison of Puya raimondii giant Andean rosettes","authors":"Mery L. Suni,&nbsp;Giovana P. Vadillo,&nbsp;Gerson E. Prado,&nbsp;Liscely Tumi,&nbsp;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}

{"title":"Belowground traits significantly differ between decreasing and increasing plant species in alpine meadows: implications for vegetation response to climate change","authors":"Haruka Kobayashi,&nbsp;Gaku Kudo,&nbsp;Karibu Fukuzawa,&nbsp;Osamu Seki,&nbsp;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}