Disjunct populations of European vascular plant species keep the same climatic niches

Autor(en)

Safaa Wasof, Jonathan Lenoir, Per Arild Aarrestad, Inger Greve Alsos, W. Scott Armbruster, Gunnar Austrheim, Vegar Bakkestuen, H. John B Birks, Kari Anne Bråthen, Olivier Broennimann, Jörg Brunet, Hans Henrik Bruun, Carl Johan Dahlberg, Martin Diekmann, Stefan Dullinger, Mats Dynesius, Rasmus Ejrnæs, Jean Claude Gégout, Bente Jessen Graae, John Arvid Grytnes, Antoine Guisan, Kristoffer Hylander, Ingibjörg S. Jónsdóttir, Jutta Kapfer, Kari Klanderud, Miska Luoto, Ann Milbau, Mari Moora, Bettina Nygaard, Arvid Odland, Harald Pauli, Virve Ravolainen, Stefanie Reinhardt, Sylvi Marlen Sandvik, Fride Høistad Schei, James D M Speed, Jens Christian Svenning, Wilfried Thuiller, Liv Unn Tveraabak, Vigdis Vandvik, Liv Guri Velle, Risto Virtanen, Pascal Vittoz, Wolfgang Willner, Thomas Wohlgemuth, Niklaus E. Zimmermann, Martin Zobel, Guillaume Decocq

Abstrakt

Aim: Previous research on how climatic niches vary across species ranges has focused on a limited number of species, mostly invasive, and has not, to date, been very conclusive. Here we assess the degree of niche conservatism between distant populations of native alpine plant species that have been separated for thousands of years. Location: European Alps and Fennoscandia. Methods: Of the studied pool of 888 terrestrial vascular plant species occurring in both the Alps and Fennoscandia, we used two complementary approaches to test and quantify climatic-niche shifts for 31 species having strictly disjunct populations and 358 species having either a contiguous or a patchy distribution with distant populations. First, we used species distribution modelling to test for a region effect on each species' climatic niche. Second, we quantified niche overlap and shifts in niche width (i.e. ecological amplitude) and position (i.e. ecological optimum) within a bi-dimensional climatic space. Results: Only one species (3%) of the 31 species with strictly disjunct populations and 58 species (16%) of the 358 species with distant populations showed a region effect on their climatic niche. Niche overlap was higher for species with strictly disjunct populations than for species with distant populations and highest for arctic-alpine species. Climatic niches were, on average, wider and located towards warmer and wetter conditions in the Alps. Main conclusion: Climatic niches seem to be generally conserved between populations that are separated between the Alps and Fennoscandia and have probably been so for 10,000-15,000 years. Therefore, the basic assumption of species distribution models that a species' climatic niche is constant in space and time - at least on time scales 104 years or less - seems to be largely valid for arctic-alpine plants.

Organisation(en)

Department für Botanik und Biodiversitätsforschung

Externe Organisation(en)

Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), University of Tromsø - The Arctic University of Norway, University of Portsmouth, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) , University of Bergen (UiB), Université de Lausanne, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), University of Copenhagen, Stockholm University, Universität Bremen, Umeå University, Aarhus University, AgroParis Tech, INRA - Institut national de la recherche agronomique, University Centre in Svalbard, University of Iceland, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, University of Helsinki, Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek, University of Tartu, Telemark University College, Norwegian Polar Institute, University of Agder, Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Nesna University College, Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research (Bioforsk), University of Oulu, Vienna Institute for Nature Conservation and Analyis (VINCA), Eidgenössische Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft, University College London, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW), Universität für Bodenkultur Wien

Journal

Global Ecology and Biogeography: a Journal of Macroecology

Band

24

Seiten

1401-1412

Anzahl der Seiten

12

ISSN

1466-822X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12375

Publikationsdatum

09-2015

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

106015 Geobotanik

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Ecology, Global and Planetary Change, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/dc050ab2-af6d-49c0-920e-9c326e4f6584