Current issue: 58(5)
Select issue
Silva Fennica 1926-1997
1990-1997
1980-1989
1970-1979
1960-1969
1950-1959
1940-1949
1926-1939
Acta Forestalia Fennica
1992-1999
1984-1991
1974-1983
1968-1973
1953-1968
1933-1952
1913-1932
Articles containing the keyword 'microsites'
Category : Research article
article id 307,
category
Research article
(2007).
The influence of changes in climate and land-use on regeneration dynamics of Norway spruce at the treeline in the Swiss Alps.
Silva Fennica
vol.
41
no.
1
article id 307.
https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.307
Abstract |
View details
|
Full text in PDF |
Author Info
Recent changes of climate and land-use are often regarded to affect the European Alpine region substantially and to trigger an increase in the elevation of the upper treeline. The patterns of tree invasion on a subalpine meadow at 1900 m a.s.l. in Sedrun, Canton Grisons, Switzerland, were studied in order 1) to reconstruct the process of tree establishment and tree–growth dynamics in space and time, and 2) to evaluate the influence of site properties, land-use change and climate on these processes. Dendroecological analysis of 105 Norway spruce combined with an assessment of 48 vegetation plots and 17 soil profiles revealed that the trees were established in one main period (1965–1980s), starting 15 years after the abandonment of the agricultural use of the meadow, and that there is a pronounced environmental gradient along the forest-meadow ecotone. Tree establishment and height growth were favoured close to the former forest edge, but all saplings irrespective of their distance to the forest edge and their age showed increased radial growth since 1990, coinciding with a period of higher summer temperatures in the region. Therefore, we conclude that the observed tree-line dynamics in Sedrun are the result of both land-use and climate change: Tree establishment was triggered by the abandonment of the agricultural use of the meadow, and strongly favoured by particularly good growing conditions in a warm decade, which illustrates the sensitivity of conifers near the alpine tree-line to temperature fluctuations.
-
Bolli,
Swiss Federal Research Institute, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
E-mail:
jacqueline.bolli@wsl.ch
- Rigling, Swiss Federal Research Institute, Zürcherstrasse 111, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland E-mail: ar@nn.ch
- Bugmann, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, Universitätstrasse 16, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland E-mail: hb@nn.ch
Click this link to register to Silva Fennica.
If you are a registered user, log in to save your selected articles for later access.
Your selected articles
Silva Fennica ·
Finnish Society of Forest Science
