skip to main content


Title: Feedback effects of clonal groups and tree clusters on site conditions at the treeline: implications for treeline dynamics
Award ID(s):
1637686
NSF-PAR ID:
10047387
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Climate Research
Volume:
73
Issue:
1-2
ISSN:
0936-577X
Page Range / eLocation ID:
85 to 96
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract

    Körner and Hoch's (2023) definition of “treeline” to include only forest edges that are arctic or alpine, globally distributed and thermally limited is reconsidered for the alpine, with attention to the alpine treeline ecotone. They characterize the alpine treeline and the ecotone as a single phenomenon at a single fundamental niche limit, with all other montane forest edges at realized niche limits. The framework restricts treeline and the treeline ecotone to narrow but interesting ecophysiological questions but leaves other fundamentally limited edges, those in disequilibrium with a changed temperature regime, and the extensive zone of krummholz and tree‐species seedlings now often referred to as the treeline ecotone, without terminology. Recognizing other fundamental niche limited edges as treelines, if not alpine, and defining “alpine treeline” as a zone or line within the broader “alpine treeline ecotone”, are proposed to promote synergies in research in these related systems.

     
    more » « less
  2. Tree-ring widths from 1576 white spruce trees growing at 78 treelines distributed across 19 research sites along a longitudinal gradient in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska. The general purpose of the sampling was to examine west-east variation in white spruce growth responses to changes in climate. Trees were sampled at both high ("alpine") and low elevation treelines ("arctic"). Increment cores were collected in August and September of 2022 as low as possible on each tree (~25 centimeter height). Trees indicated with an "f" were treated with NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) fertilizer in June of 2019 and June of 2021. 
    more » « less