Independent Trends of Mountain Vegetation and Soil Properties Over 40 Years of Environmental Change
Corresponding Author
Sabine B. Rumpf
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Correspondence:
Sabine B. Rumpf ([email protected])
Search for more papers by this authorAline Buri
Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorStéphanie Grand
Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorChristophe F. Randin
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Centre Alpien de Phytogéographie—CAP, Fondation Aubert, Champex-Lac, Switzerland
Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur la Montagne, University of Lausanne, Sion, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorSébastien Tesson
Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorCarmen Cianfrani
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorAntoine Guisan
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur la Montagne, University of Lausanne, Sion, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Sabine B. Rumpf
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Correspondence:
Sabine B. Rumpf ([email protected])
Search for more papers by this authorAline Buri
Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorStéphanie Grand
Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorChristophe F. Randin
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Centre Alpien de Phytogéographie—CAP, Fondation Aubert, Champex-Lac, Switzerland
Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur la Montagne, University of Lausanne, Sion, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorSébastien Tesson
Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorCarmen Cianfrani
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorAntoine Guisan
Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur la Montagne, University of Lausanne, Sion, Switzerland
Search for more papers by this authorFunding: This study was partially funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) via the project EcoGeoIntegralp (CR23I2-162754) granted to AG.
Sabine B. Rumpf and Aline Buri should be considered joint first authors.
This article is part of the Special Issue “Plant Community Responses to Climate Change,” edited by Richard Michalet, Jiri Dolezal, Jonathan Lenoir, Peter C. le Roux, Sabine Rumpf, and Sonja Wipf.
Co-ordinating Editor: Dr. Jiří Doležal
ABSTRACT
Questions
Although mountain ecosystems are key in providing numerous contributions to people, they are affected by environmental changes. The European Alps, in particular, although shaped by human land use for millennia, suffer pronounced impacts of climate change combined with continued land-use changes and atmospheric nitrogen deposition. As a core component of ecosystem functioning, the soil–vegetation interface is especially sensitive to these environmental changes, and it is therefore crucial to understand its response. Although several studies have demonstrated the impacts of environmental change on vegetation or soil individually, it remains largely unknown whether they respond synchronously.
Location
Montane and subalpine grasslands of the Western Swiss Alps.
Methods
We analysed changes and correlations of ecological indicators of vegetation and soil properties after 40 years in 86 re-surveyed semi-permanent plots.
Results
Ecological indicators of vegetation releves changed, driven by an increase of species adapted to alkaline conditions and mowing or grazing. By contrast, we detected neither a trend of thermophilisation, nor an increase of nutriphilous species or those adapted to hemeroby. Organic carbon, nitrogen, organic matter content, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio and pH increased in the soil. Yet, these changes of vegetation and soil were so far independent of each other.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that mountain vegetation and soil have so far changed asymmetrically with potential knock-on effects in the decades to come with implications for the conservation of mountain ecosystems and our capacity to predict their future trajectory.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open Research
Data Availability Statement
Plant species lists of all relevés are publicly available on the stable online repository Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14557440. All other data are provided in the Supporting Information.
Supporting Information
| Filename | Description |
|---|---|
| jvs70006-sup-0001-AppendixS1.docxWord 2007 document , 103.6 KB |
Table S1 Relevé-specific vegetation alliances. Table S2 Releve-specific indicators of vegetation change. Table S3 Releve-specific indicators of soil change. Figure S1 Estimation of historical relevé surface area. Figure S2 Changes of main land cover types surrounding the re-surveyed releves. Method S1 R code for vegetation alliance classification. |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
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