Long-term vegetation stability in northern Europe as assessed by changes in species co-occurrences

Background: The effect of the anticipated climate change on the stability of vegetation and the factors underlying this stability are not well understood.Aims: Our objective was to quantify long-term vegetation changes in a range of habitats in northern Europe by exploring species co-occurrences and...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plant ecology & diversity 2013-06, Vol.6 (2), p.289-302
Main Authors: Kapfer, Jutta, Birks, H. John B, Felde, Vivian A, Klanderud, Kari, Martinessen, Tone, Ross, Louise C, Schei, Fride H, Virtanen, Risto, Grytnes, John-Arvid
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
alpine
arctic
Biodiversity
Bryophytes
Bryopsida
Climate change
Climate effects
environmental change
habitats
Land use
Meta-analysis
mire
Plants
Polar environments
Productivity
randomisation test
Regression analysis
Sampling methods
species compositional changes
Species diversity
Stability analysis
surveys
vascular plants
Vegetation
Vegetation changes
vegetation dynamics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background: The effect of the anticipated climate change on the stability of vegetation and the factors underlying this stability are not well understood.Aims: Our objective was to quantify long-term vegetation changes in a range of habitats in northern Europe by exploring species co-occurrences and their links to diversity and productivity gradients.Methods: We re-sampled vegetation in 16 arctic, mountain and mire sites 20 to 90 years after the original inventories. A site-specific change in species assemblages (stability) was quantified using species co-occurrences. Using a randomisation test we tested whether the changes observed were significantly greater than those expected by chance. Relationships between patterns in vegetation stability and time between surveys, numbers of plots, or species diversity and proxies for productivity, were tested using regression analysis.Results: At most sites the changes in species co-occurrences of vascular plants and bryophytes were greater than those expected by chance. The changes observed were found to be unrelated to gradients in productivity or diversity.Conclusions: Changes in species co-occurrences are not strongly linked to diversity or productivity gradients in vegetation, suggesting that other gradients or site-specific factors (e.g. land use or species interactions) may be more important in controlling recent compositional shifts in vegetation in northern Europe.
ISSN:1755-1668
1755-0874
1755-1668
DOI:10.1080/17550874.2013.782370