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AuthorAlatalo, Juha M.
AuthorJägerbrand, Annika K.
AuthorMolau, Ulf
Available date2016-10-31T11:26:20Z
Publication Date2016-02-18
Publication NameScientific Reports
Identifierhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep21720
CitationAlatalo JM, Jägerbrand AK, Molau U. Impacts of different climate change regimes and extreme climatic events on an alpine meadow community. Scientific Reports. 2016;6:21720.
URIhttp://hdl.handle.net/10576/4942
AbstractClimate variability is expected to increase in future but there exist very few experimental studies that apply different warming regimes on plant communities over several years. We studied an alpine meadow community under three warming regimes over three years. Treatments consisted of (a) a constant level of warming with open-top chambers (ca. 1.9 °C above ambient), (b) yearly stepwise increases in warming (increases of ca. 1.0, 1.9 and 3.5 °C), and (c) pulse warming, a single first-year pulse event of warming (increase of ca. 3.5 °C). Pulse warming and stepwise warming was hypothesised to cause distinct first-year and third-year effects, respectively. We found support for both hypotheses; however, the responses varied among measurement levels (whole community, canopy, bottom layer, and plant functional groups), treatments, and time. Our study revealed complex responses of the alpine plant community to the different experimentally imposed climate warming regimes. Plant cover, height and biomass frequently responded distinctly to the constant level of warming, the stepwise increase in warming and the extreme pulse-warming event. Notably, we found that stepwise warming had an accumulating effect on biomass, the responses to the different warming regimes varied among functional groups, and the short-term perturbations had negative effect on species richness and diversity
SponsorNFR grant (B-AA/BU 08424) to UM.
Languageen
PublisherNature Publishing Group
SubjectCommunity ecology
Climate-change ecology
Biodiversity
TitleImpacts of different climate change regimes and extreme climatic events on an alpine meadow community
TypeArticle
Volume Number6
ESSN2045-2322
dc.accessType Open Access


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