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Fire facilitates warming-induced upward shifts of alpine treelines by altering interspecific interactions

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Moderate-severity fire disturbances can accelerate upslope shifts of alpine treelines by reducing interspecific interactions, providing additional evidence for the species interaction mechanism in controlling treeline dynamics.

Abstract

Biotic interactions between trees and other plants may modulate the responses of alpine treelines to climate. Moderate disturbances could, therefore, accelerate upward shifts of alpine treelines as the climate warms by reducing the coverage of competitor plants and resetting interspecific interactions. Larch (Larix potaninii var. macrocarpa) treelines disturbed by fire on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau are good locales for testing this hypothesis. We characterized treelines in five large rectangular plots spanning undisturbed and fire-disturbed fir (Abies georgei) and larch treelines. The fires in the 1960s caused gaps in the reconstructed age structures of the larches during the 1970s but did not lead to downslope shifts in treeline position. Recruitment has instead increased since the 1980s within the disturbed larch treelines, with treelines shifting upward by 11–44 m. In contrast, the undisturbed larch and fir treeline positions remained mostly unchanged. We hypothesize that upslope shifts of alpine treelines are likely a consequence of climatic warming, but fire disturbances can accelerate these dynamics by altering interspecific interactions.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41661144040, 41525001), and the International Partnership Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (131C11KYSB20160061). AME’s participation in this project was supported by NSF grant DEB 1237491, the Harvard Forest and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Presidential International Fellowship Initiative for Visiting Scientists, Grant no. 2016VB074. JP’s participation in this project was supported by the European Research Council Synergy grant SyG-2013-610028 IMBALANCE-P. We thank Xuefei Yang, Yingfeng Bi, Shibin Jiao for fieldwork assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Yafeng Wang, Xiaoming Lu, Haifeng Zhu & Eryuan Liang

  2. College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China

    Yafeng Wang

  3. School of Science, Auckland University of Technology, Private Bag 92006, 1142, Auckland, New Zealand

    Bradley Case

  4. Harvard Forest, Harvard University, 324 North Main Street, Petersham, MA, 01366, USA

    Aaron M. Ellison

  5. Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB, CSIC, 08193, Catalonia, Spain

    Josep Peñuelas

  6. CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, 08193, Catalonia, Spain

    Josep Peñuelas

  7. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Haifeng Zhu & Eryuan Liang

  8. Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE, CSIC), Avda. Montañana 1005, 50080, Zaragoza, Spain

    J. Julio Camarero

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  1. Yafeng Wang
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Correspondence to Eryuan Liang.

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Wang, Y., Case, B., Lu, X. et al. Fire facilitates warming-induced upward shifts of alpine treelines by altering interspecific interactions. Trees 33, 1051–1061 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-019-01841-6

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