Cool topoclimates promote cold-adapted plant diversity in temperate mountain forests
Climate strongly influences the composition and diversity of forest plant communities. Recent studies have highlighted the role of tree canopies in shaping understory thermal conditions at small spatial scales (i.e. microclimate), especially in lowland forests. In mountain forests, however, the infl...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Peer Community In
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | Peer Community Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.519/ |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1825206348455870464 |
|---|---|
| author | Borderieux, Jeremy De Lombaerde, Emiel De Pauw, Karen Sanczuk, Pieter Vangansbeke, Pieter Vanneste, Thomas De Frenne, Pieter Gégout, Jean-Claude Serra-Diaz, Josep |
| author_facet | Borderieux, Jeremy De Lombaerde, Emiel De Pauw, Karen Sanczuk, Pieter Vangansbeke, Pieter Vanneste, Thomas De Frenne, Pieter Gégout, Jean-Claude Serra-Diaz, Josep |
| author_sort | Borderieux, Jeremy |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Climate strongly influences the composition and diversity of forest plant communities. Recent studies have highlighted the role of tree canopies in shaping understory thermal conditions at small spatial scales (i.e. microclimate), especially in lowland forests. In mountain forests, however, the influence of topography in environmental conditions (i.e., topoclimate) is ought to also influence plants’ perceived temperature. Understanding how topography and canopies interactively affect understory temperature is key to identifying stable refugia that could shelter cold-adapted forest specialist plants under climate change. Here we report on growing season understory temperatures using 48 loggers in contrasting topographic features and canopy of a mid-range mountain valley spanning from 475 m a.s.l. to 1203 m a.s.l. in the Vosges Mountains (NE France). We disentangle the relative importance and the effects of topography vs. canopy in determining local temperatures. We then evaluate how topography and canopy-induced variation in temperature drive plant community composition and richness in 306 floristic surveys across the studied mountain valley. Our results show that topography outweighed canopy cover in explaining growing season understory temperatures. Regardless of canopy, the daily mean temperature of the growing season in south-facing ridges was 1.5 °C (CI: 0.62 – 2.38°C) warmer than shaded valley bottoms, while dense canopies cooled temperatures by 0.5 °C (CI: 0.02 – 0.98 °C) compared to less dense canopies. Topoclimate explained community composition as much as elevation and was the only significant predictor of species richness. Cold topoclimates harbored 30% more species than the average species richness across our plots. This increase in species richness was explained by an increase of cold-adapted species, both forest specialist and generalist species. Our findings highlight a stronger role of topography compared to canopy cover on community composition in mountain forests via topoclimatic cooling of north-facing slopes and valley bottoms. The importance of topographic features to explain temperature cooling and diversity underpins their role as present and likely future microrefugia. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-3f92474582fc4267933b3fbda826c0cd |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2804-3871 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Peer Community In |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Peer Community Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-3f92474582fc4267933b3fbda826c0cd2025-02-07T10:34:51ZengPeer Community InPeer Community Journal2804-38712025-01-01510.24072/pcjournal.51910.24072/pcjournal.519Cool topoclimates promote cold-adapted plant diversity in temperate mountain forests Borderieux, Jeremy0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3993-1067De Lombaerde, Emiel1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0050-2735De Pauw, Karen2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8369-2679Sanczuk, Pieter3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1107-4905Vangansbeke, Pieter4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6356-2858Vanneste, Thomas5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5296-917XDe Frenne, Pieter6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8613-0943Gégout, Jean-Claude7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5760-9920Serra-Diaz, Josep8https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1988-1154Université de Lorraine, AgroParisTech, INRAE, UMR Silva, 54000 Nancy, France; Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Brussels, Belgium; Forest & Nature Lab, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267, 9090 Gontrode, BelgiumForest & Nature Lab, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267, 9090 Gontrode, BelgiumForest & Nature Lab, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267, 9090 Gontrode, BelgiumForest & Nature Lab, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267, 9090 Gontrode, BelgiumForest & Nature Lab, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267, 9090 Gontrode, BelgiumForest & Nature Lab, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267, 9090 Gontrode, BelgiumUniversité de Lorraine, AgroParisTech, INRAE, UMR Silva, 54000 Nancy, FranceUniversité de Lorraine, AgroParisTech, INRAE, UMR Silva, 54000 Nancy, France; Botanical Institute of Barcelona (IBB, CSIC - CMCNB), 08038 Barcelona, Spain Climate strongly influences the composition and diversity of forest plant communities. Recent studies have highlighted the role of tree canopies in shaping understory thermal conditions at small spatial scales (i.e. microclimate), especially in lowland forests. In mountain forests, however, the influence of topography in environmental conditions (i.e., topoclimate) is ought to also influence plants’ perceived temperature. Understanding how topography and canopies interactively affect understory temperature is key to identifying stable refugia that could shelter cold-adapted forest specialist plants under climate change. Here we report on growing season understory temperatures using 48 loggers in contrasting topographic features and canopy of a mid-range mountain valley spanning from 475 m a.s.l. to 1203 m a.s.l. in the Vosges Mountains (NE France). We disentangle the relative importance and the effects of topography vs. canopy in determining local temperatures. We then evaluate how topography and canopy-induced variation in temperature drive plant community composition and richness in 306 floristic surveys across the studied mountain valley. Our results show that topography outweighed canopy cover in explaining growing season understory temperatures. Regardless of canopy, the daily mean temperature of the growing season in south-facing ridges was 1.5 °C (CI: 0.62 – 2.38°C) warmer than shaded valley bottoms, while dense canopies cooled temperatures by 0.5 °C (CI: 0.02 – 0.98 °C) compared to less dense canopies. Topoclimate explained community composition as much as elevation and was the only significant predictor of species richness. Cold topoclimates harbored 30% more species than the average species richness across our plots. This increase in species richness was explained by an increase of cold-adapted species, both forest specialist and generalist species. Our findings highlight a stronger role of topography compared to canopy cover on community composition in mountain forests via topoclimatic cooling of north-facing slopes and valley bottoms. The importance of topographic features to explain temperature cooling and diversity underpins their role as present and likely future microrefugia.https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.519/Community ecology, forest, topoclimate, microclimate, topography, climatic refugia, diversity, understory vegetation |
| spellingShingle | Borderieux, Jeremy De Lombaerde, Emiel De Pauw, Karen Sanczuk, Pieter Vangansbeke, Pieter Vanneste, Thomas De Frenne, Pieter Gégout, Jean-Claude Serra-Diaz, Josep Cool topoclimates promote cold-adapted plant diversity in temperate mountain forests Peer Community Journal Community ecology, forest, topoclimate, microclimate, topography, climatic refugia, diversity, understory vegetation |
| title | Cool topoclimates promote cold-adapted plant diversity in temperate mountain forests
|
| title_full | Cool topoclimates promote cold-adapted plant diversity in temperate mountain forests
|
| title_fullStr | Cool topoclimates promote cold-adapted plant diversity in temperate mountain forests
|
| title_full_unstemmed | Cool topoclimates promote cold-adapted plant diversity in temperate mountain forests
|
| title_short | Cool topoclimates promote cold-adapted plant diversity in temperate mountain forests
|
| title_sort | cool topoclimates promote cold adapted plant diversity in temperate mountain forests |
| topic | Community ecology, forest, topoclimate, microclimate, topography, climatic refugia, diversity, understory vegetation |
| url | https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.519/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT borderieuxjeremy cooltopoclimatespromotecoldadaptedplantdiversityintemperatemountainforests AT delombaerdeemiel cooltopoclimatespromotecoldadaptedplantdiversityintemperatemountainforests AT depauwkaren cooltopoclimatespromotecoldadaptedplantdiversityintemperatemountainforests AT sanczukpieter cooltopoclimatespromotecoldadaptedplantdiversityintemperatemountainforests AT vangansbekepieter cooltopoclimatespromotecoldadaptedplantdiversityintemperatemountainforests AT vannestethomas cooltopoclimatespromotecoldadaptedplantdiversityintemperatemountainforests AT defrennepieter cooltopoclimatespromotecoldadaptedplantdiversityintemperatemountainforests AT gegoutjeanclaude cooltopoclimatespromotecoldadaptedplantdiversityintemperatemountainforests AT serradiazjosep cooltopoclimatespromotecoldadaptedplantdiversityintemperatemountainforests |