regional species richness and genetic diversity of Arctic vegetation reflect both past glaciations and current climate

AIM: The Arctic has experienced marked climatic differences between glacial and interglacial periods and is now subject to a rapidly warming climate. Knowledge of the effects of historical processes on current patterns of diversity may aid predictions of the responses of vegetation to future climate...

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Published in:Global ecology and biogeography Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 430 - 442
Main Authors: Stewart, Lærke, Alsos, Inger G, Bay, Christian, Breen, Amy L, Brochmann, Christian, Boulanger‐Lapointe, Noémie, Broennimann, Olivier, Bültmann, Helga, Bøcher, Peder Klith, Damgaard, Christian, Daniëls, Fred J. A, Ehrich, Dorothee, Eidesen, Pernille Bronken, Guisan, Antoine, Jónsdóttir, Ingibjörg Svala, Lenoir, Jonathan, le Roux, Peter C, Lévesque, Esther, Luoto, Miska, Nabe‐Nielsen, Jacob, Schönswetter, Peter, Tribsch, Andreas, Tveraabak, Liv Unn, Virtanen, Risto, Walker, Donald A, Westergaard, Kristine B, Yoccoz, Nigel G, Svenning, Jens‐Christian, Wisz, Mary, Schmidt, Niels Martin, Pellissier, Loïc
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford Blackwell Science 01.04.2016
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Wiley
Subjects:
AFLP
amplified fragment length polymorphism
Arctic plants
Arctic region
Biodiversity
Biodiversity and Ecology
bryophytes
Bryopsida
climate
Climate change
Ecology, environment
Environmental Sciences
flora
Flowers & plants
Genetic diversity
genetic variation
glaciation history
Global Changes
global warming
habitats
intraspecific genetic diversity
landscapes
lichens
Life Sciences
prediction
species diversity
species richness
Studies
taxonomic groups
vascular plants
vegetation
Arctic region
PN, Arctic
ISSN:1466-822X, 1466-8238, 1466-822X
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Summary:AIM: The Arctic has experienced marked climatic differences between glacial and interglacial periods and is now subject to a rapidly warming climate. Knowledge of the effects of historical processes on current patterns of diversity may aid predictions of the responses of vegetation to future climate change. We aim to test whether plant species and genetic diversity patterns are correlated with time since deglaciation at regional and local scales. We also investigate whether species richness is correlated with genetic diversity in vascular plants. LOCATION: Circumarctic. METHODS: We investigated species richness of the vascular plant flora of 21 floristic provinces and examined local species richness in 6215 vegetation plots distributed across the Arctic. We assessed levels of genetic diversity inferred from amplified fragment length polymorphism variation across populations of 23 common Arctic species. Correlations between diversity measures and landscape age (time since deglaciation) as well as variables characterizing current climate were analysed using spatially explicit simultaneous autoregressive models. RESULTS: Regional species richness of vascular plants and genetic diversity were correlated with each other, and both showed a positive relationship with landscape age. Plot species richness showed differing responses for vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens. At this finer scale, the richness of vascular plants was not significantly related to landscape age, which had a small effect size compared to the models of bryophyte and lichen richness. MAIN CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that imprints of past glaciations in Arctic vegetation diversity patterns at the regional scale are still detectable today. Since Arctic vegetation is still limited by post‐glacial migration lag, it will most probably also exhibit lags in response to current and future climate change. Our results also suggest that local species richness at the plot scale is more determined by local habitat factors.
Bibliography:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/geb.12424
Appendix S1 Circumpolar Arctic vegetation map. Appendix S2 Maps of temperature and precipitation data used as explanatory variables. Appendix S3 Importance of small-scale variables. Appendix S4 Test of predictive ability. Appendix S5 Results of generalized linear models. Appendix S6 Plots of interpolated genetic diversity against individual genetic diversity of the 24 species. Regression lines indicate significant relationships (P < 0.05). Appendix S7 Box-and-whisker plot of the relationship between mean species richness per plot and landscape age. Appendix S8 Correlation of plot species richness with regional species richness.
Research Council of Norway - No. 150322/720; No. 170952/V40
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ArticleID:GEB12424
ark:/67375/WNG-5HMBR628-1
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
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ISSN:1466-822X
1466-8238
1466-822X
DOI:10.1111/geb.12424