Climate Warming Effects on Alpine Plant Communities
studies how climate change and warming temperatures affect alpine plant growth, adaptation, and ecosystem processes in high-elevation environments, which is critical for understanding how mountain ecosystems will respond to global environmental change.
Concept (36) →
climate change experiments
Manipulative experiments that alter abiotic conditions or reciprocally transplant individuals to understand and predict the effects of environmental c...
local adaptation
An evolutionary process in which a population evolves to become more suited to its local environment through natural selection, resulting in higher fi...
biogeochemical cycling
The cycling of chemical elements between living organisms and the physical environment, particularly carbon and nitrogen cycles
detritus breakdown
The decomposition and fragmentation of dead organic matter by organisms, particularly the conversion of coarse to fine particulate organic matter
reciprocal transplant experiment
Experimental approach where organisms from different source populations are grown in different environments to test for local adaptation
herbivory
Consumption of plant material by animals, measured as browse occurrence on host plants
cline
A gradual change in a trait across an environmental gradient, where width is expected to be proportional to dispersal distance divided by square root ...
maximum entropy theory of ecology
Theory that predicts patterns of distribution, abundance, and energetics using instantaneous values of community state variables including total area,...
soil moisture limitations
The constraint of microbial activity and carbon respiration by water availability in soil systems
litter quality
Show 26 more concepts
climate-ecosystem feedback
Ecosystem responses to climate change that exert positive or negative feedbacks on climate, mediated by slow-moving factors such as shifts in vegetati...
quantitative genetics
The study of traits controlled by multiple loci with continuous phenotypic distributions and measurable heritability
Metabolic Theory of Ecology
Theory providing mass-metabolism scaling rules that relate metabolic rate to organism mass through allometric relationships
aging
shrub encroachment
Shift toward woody plant encroachment into nonwoody meadows and grasslands
decomposition
permafrost
pleiotropic effects
When single genes or alleles influence multiple, seemingly unrelated traits
maximum entropy inference
Statistical inference procedure that selects flattest probability distributions compatible with constraints imposed by prior knowledge
chlorophyll content
SPAD measurement of leaf chlorophyll concentration indicating photosynthetic capacity
sex chromosomes
Chromosomes that determine sex, including different haplotypes in the sex-determining region
Leaf carbon content
metabolic rate distribution over individuals
Distribution of metabolic rates over individuals in a community, obtained by summing over abundance
chromosomal inversion
Chromosomal rearrangement where a segment is reversed in orientation, potentially suppressing recombination and maintaining linkage between beneficial...
water potential
An integrative measure of how much tension there is in the water column of the xylem, reflecting the ease or difficulty a plant has in transporting wa...
plant functional groups
Classification of species with similar characteristics into plant functional groups or plant functional types to reduce complexity in ecological commu...
extinction cascades
population decline
Reduction in population growth rates, size, or occurrence across species ranges
juvenile growth rate
Daily mass gain during critical post-emergence development period in juvenile mammals
chemical defences
apparency hypothesis
optimal foraging theory
Animals adopt a foraging strategy that provides the most benefit (energy) for the lowest cost
local resource competition
Theory suggesting that offspring sex ratios might vary according to maternal condition, hence females should vary the sex of their offspring according...
Rensch's Rule
thermal insulation properties
ecotonal zones
Areas of transition between adjacent, distinct ecosystems with unique species assemblages at the fringes of mature stands
Protocol (18) →
common garden experiment (Brassicaceae)
A large-scale reciprocal transplant experiment across five elevational gardens with factorial snow and temperature manipulations to test local adaptat...
Infrared heating manipulation
Infrared heaters suspended above experimental plots to simulate warming effects on montane vegetation communities across moisture gradients. Heating p...
RMBL warming experiment
29-year experimental warming using overhead infrared radiators to increase soil temperature by 2°C in subalpine grassland plots. Heat flux of 22 W/m² ...
Open-top chamber warming
A 2×2 factorial experiment combining passive warming using open-top chambers with dominant plant species removal across elevational gradients at multi...
browse damage assessment
Twice weekly censuses recording plant vital status, reproductive phenology, and fitness components including flower and fruit production. Weekly asses...
Carbon isotope discrimination analysis
Measurement of water-use efficiency differences between plant sexes using leaf carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) to understand mechanistic basis of sex-spe...
MaxEnt SAR theory
Application of METE mathematical framework to predict species-area relationships and species-abundance distributions based on community state variable...
HPLC glucosinolate analysis
Extraction and quantification of desulfated glucosinolates from plant leaves using high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array and charged...
Principal Component Analysis (Brassicaceae)
Genomic sequencing and demographic modeling using GADMA2 to estimate historical gene flow patterns and migration rates between populations across elev...
rainout shelter
Experimental manipulation of summer precipitation levels (doubled, halved, ambient) to assess effects on plant physiological and fitness traits in a c...
Show 8 more protocols
Nondestructive plant size measurement for biomass prediction (Asteraceae)
Systematic measurement of plant morphological characteristics (leaf number, leaf area, stalk count, etc.) before plant extraction to develop predictiv...
Factorial drought and nutrient stress experiment (Brassicaceae)
Greenhouse factorial experiment manipulating water availability (3 levels) and nutrient supply (2 levels) to test resource limitation effects on fitne...
SPAD chlorophyll measurement
Measurement of chlorophyll fluorescence using LI-600 to assess photosynthetic efficiency by quantifying light emission from chlorophyll molecules exci...
QTL mapping (Brassicaceae)
Multi-environment QTL analysis using recombinant inbred lines tested across vernalization, photoperiod and temperature treatments to identify genomic ...
Elevation gradient flower color polymorphism survey (Brassicaceae)
Systematic assessment of flower color variation across environmental gradients using standardized color categories and plot-based sampling. Combines p...
destructive biomass sampling
Complete excavation of plants followed by separation into above-ground, below-ground, and reproductive components, with subsequent drying and weighing...
community-weighted mean
Multivariate analysis technique to quantify community responses over time. Treatment weights indicate response magnitude and species weights show indi...
Leaf pack decomposition assay
Controlled microcosm experiments measuring invertebrate-mediated breakdown of sedge detritus by quantifying mass loss of coarse and fine particulate o...
Author (22) →
Publication (70) →
Winters are changing: snow effects on Arctic and alpine tundra ecosystems
Plant functional trait change across a warming tundra biome
DynaMETE: a hybrid MaxEnt-plus-mechanism theory of dynamic macroecology
Global warming and soil microclimate: results from a meadow-warming experiment
Changes in flowering and abundance of <i>Delphinium nuttallianum</i> (Ranunculaceae) in response to a subalpine climate warming experiment
Plot-scale evidence of tundra vegetation change and links to recent summer warming
Convergent ecosystem responses to 23-year ambient and manipulated warming link advancing snowmelt and shrub encroachment to transient and long-term climate–soil carbon feedback
On theory in ecology
Subalpine meadow flowering phenology responses to climate change: integrating experimental and gradient methods
Integrating viability and fecundity selection to illuminate the adaptive nature of genetic clines
Show 60 more publications
Climate change disrupts local adaptation and favours upslope migration
Shifts in plant dominance control short and long-term carbon-cycle responses to widespread drought
Herbivory and water availability interact to shape the adaptive landscape in the perennial forb, Boechera stricta
Climate change shifts natural selection and the adaptive potential of the perennial forb <i>Bochera stricta</i> in the Rocky Mountians
Ecological causes and consequences of flower color polymorphism in a self pollinating plant (<i>Boechera stricta</i>)
Climate Warming Drives Local Extinction: Evidence from Observation and Experimentation
Ecological factors influence balancing selection on leaf chemical profiles of a wildflower
Shifting macroecological patterns and static theory failure in a stressed alpine plant community
Biodiversity scales from plots to biomes with a universal species-area curve
Adaptation and gene flow are insufficient to rescue a montane plant under climate change
Small spaces, big impacts: contributions of micro-environmental variation to population persistence under climate change
Plant community composition mediates both large transient decline and predicted long-term recovery of soil carbon under climate warming
Subalpine forest carbon cycling: Short- and long-term influence of climate and species
An equation of state unifies diversity, productivity, abundance and biomass
Response of plant pathogens and herbivores to a warming experiment
<i>In situ</i> photosynthetic freezing tolerance for plants exposed to a global warming manipulation in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, USA
Effects of long-term experimental warming on aphid density in the field
Transgenerational and within-generation plasticity in response to climate change: insights from a manipulative field experiment across an elevational gradient
Herbivory damage but not plant disease under experimental warming is dependent on weather for three subalpine grass species
Photosynthetic responses to a climate-warming manipulation for contrasting meadow species in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, USA
Maximum information entropy: a foundation for ecological theory
Accelerated snowmelt protocol to simulate climate change induced impacts on snowpack dependent ecosystems
Resource availability alters fitness trade-offs: implications for evolution in stressful environments
Inferring Regional-Scale Species Diversity from Small-Plot Censuses
Integrating macroecological metrics and community taxonomic structure
The effect of experimental ecosystem warming on CO2 fluxes in a montane meadow
Evolutionary and ecological responses to anthropogenic climate change
Taxon Categories and the Universal Species-Area Relationship
Enhanced growth of sagebrush (<i>Artemisia tridentata</i>) in response to manipulated ecosystem warming
Compensatory responses to loss of warming-sensitive plant species
Controls on radial growth of mountain big sagebrush and implications for climate change
Control of litter decomposition in a subalpine meadow-sagebrush steppe ecotone under climate change
Young inversion with multiple linked QTLs under selection in a hybrid zone
Multiple models and experiments underscore large uncertainty in soil carbon dynamics
Temperature response of soil respiration largely unaltered with experimental warming
A gain of function polymorphism controlling complex traits and fitness in nature
Scale collapse and the emergence of the power law species–area relationship
Identifying targets and agents of selection: Innovative methods to evaluate the processes that contribute to local adaptation
Metabolic Partitioning across Individuals in Ecological Communities
Strong selection genome-wide enhances fitness tradeoffs across environments and episodes of selection
Elevated [CO2] and temperature augment gas exchange and shift the fitness landscape in a montane forb
Dead wood biomass and turnover time, measured by radiocarbon, along a subalpine elevation gradient
Microgeographic patterns of genetic divergence and adaptation across environmental gradients in <i>Boechera stricta</i>(Brassicaceae)
Response of nitrogen cycling to simulated climate change: differential responses along a subalpine ecotone
Tracking diverse minerals, hungry organisms, and dangerous contaminants using reactive transport models
The shape of a species\\\' spatial abundance distribution
Changes in water relations for leaves exposed to a climate-warming manipulation in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado
Carbon Cycle Uncertainty Increases Climate Change Risks and Mitigation Challenges
Building up Biogeography: Pattern to Process
Restoration of vegetation communities of created depressional marshes in Ohio and Colorado (USA): the importance of initial effort for mitigation success
Evolutionary genetics of plant adaptation
Global warming and terrestrial ecosystems: a conceptual framework for analysis
Effects of manipulated soil microclimate on mesofaunal biomass and diversity
Gas exhange and water relations of two Rocky Mountain shrub species exposed to a climate change manipulation
Toward a synthesis of the Newtonian and Darwinian worldviews
Population dynamics and competitive outcome derive from resource allocation statistics: the governing influence of the distinguishability of individuals
Moisture Relationships in Twelve Northern Desert Shrub Communities Near Grand Junction, Colorado
Assessing the substitutability of mitigation wetlands for natural sites: estimating the restoration lag costs of wetland mitigation
Methane consumption by montane soils: implications for positive and negative feedback with climate change
Feedbacks, thresholds and synergies in global change: population as a dynamic factor
Dataset (32) →
natural_populations_plot
This file contains the data to analyze the environmental correlates of flower color variation. The results are laid out in the text (Environmental cor...
natural_populations_individual
This file contains data from transects in natural populations on individual plants. This dataset supports the section on the methods and results calle...
greenhouse_experiment
This file contains data from the greenhouse experiment.
no_choice_experiment
This file contains the data for the no choice experiment
choice_experiment
This file contains the data for the choice experiment.
common_garden
This file contains the data for family-level analyses of the common garden experiment.
Data from: Ecological factors influence balancing selection on leaf chemical profiles of a wildflower
Balancing selection is frequently invoked as a mechanism to maintain variation within and across populations. However, rigorous tests demonstrating ba...
Data from: Integrating viability and fecundity selection to illuminate the adaptive nature of genetic clines
Genetically-based trait variation across environmental gradients can reflect adaptation to local environments. However, natural populations that appea...
Data from: Transgenerational and within-generation plasticity in response to climate change: insights from a manipulative field experiment across an elevational gradient
Parental environmental effects, or transgenerational plasticity, can influence an individual’s phenotype or fitness, yet remain underexplored in the c...
An Equation of State Unifies Diversity, Productivity, Abundance and Biomass (data sets)
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Show 22 more datasets
Data from: Evidence of local adaptation to fine- and coarse-grained environmental variability in Poa alpina in the Swiss Alps
In the alpine landscape, characterized by high spatiotemporal heterogeneity and barriers, divergent selection is likely to lead to local adaptation of...
Data from: Strong selection genome-wide enhances fitness trade-offs across environments and episodes of selection
Fitness trade-offs across episodes of selection and environments influence life-history evolution and adaptive population divergence. Documenting thes...
Appendix A. List of the graminoid species in the experimental warming meadow, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Gunnison County, Colorado, USA.
List of the graminoid species in the experimental warming meadow, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Gunnison County, Colorado, USA.
Ecological causes and consequences of flower color polymorphism in a self-pollinating plant (Boechera stricta)
Intraspecific variation in flower color is often attributed to pollinator-mediated selection, yet this mechanism cannot explain flower color polymorph...
Data from: Microgeographic patterns of genetic divergence and adaptation across environmental gradients in Boechera stricta (Brassicaceae)
Abiotic and biotic conditions often vary continuously across the landscape, imposing divergent selection on local populations. We used a provenance tr...
Data from: A gain-of-function polymorphism controlling complex traits and fitness in nature
Identification of the causal genes that control complex trait variation remains challenging, limiting our appreciation of the evolutionary processes t...
Data for “Herbivory damage but not plant disease under experimental warming is dependent on weather for three subalpine grass species”, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Gothic, Colorado, 2015-2017.
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Biomass Inventories at Harvard Forest EMS Tower since 1993
In 1993, we installed 40 circular, 10 m radius biometric plots in the footprint of the EMS tower on Prospect Hill. We randomly placed the plots within...
Data from: Young inversion with multiple linked QTLs under selection in a hybrid zone
Fixed chromosomal inversions can reduce gene flow and promote speciation in two ways: by suppressing recombination and by carrying locally favoured al...
Data from: Climate change shifts natural selection and the adaptive potential of the perennial forb Boechera stricta in the Rocky Mountains
Heritable genetic variation is necessary for populations to evolve in response to anthropogenic climate change. However, antagonistic genetic correlat...
Data from: Modeling intraspecific adaptation of Abies sachalinensis to local altitude and responses to global warming, based on a 36-year reciprocal transplant experiment
Intraspecific adaptation in Abies sachalinensis was examined using models based on long-term monitoring data gathered during a reciprocal transplant e...
Data and scripts for the manuscript "Herbivory and water availability interact to shape the adaptive landscape in the perennial forb, <i>Boechera stricta</i>".
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Model output and meta-analysis data from INTERFACE paper
Model output and meta-analysis data from model-experiment comparison that came out of INTERFACE workshop. Includes output from five soil carbon models...
Provenance trial experiments
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Integral projection models from reciprocal transplant experiments
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Trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) water potentials from clones with varying aspect and understory composition
Predawn and midday plant water potential measurements, collected on terminal twigs using a scholander-type pressure chamber (PMS Instruments, Corvalli...
Replication data for Fig 4.1, Gunnison uterine litter size vs litter size at first juvenile emergence, 19 Sept 2025.
FILE DESCRIPTION File name = Fig 4.1, Gunnison uterine litter size vs litter size at first juvenile emergence, 19 Sept 2025. These data used for Fig 4...
Trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) water potentials from clones with varying aspect and understory composition
Predawn and midday plant water potential measurements, collected on terminal twigs using a scholander-type pressure chamber (PMS Instruments, Corvalli...
Coronavirus testing indicates transmission risk increases along wildlife supply chains for human consumption in Viet Nam, 2013-2014
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Forest Inventory of a Northern Hardwood Forest: Watershed 6, 2017, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest
Forest inventory surveys were initiated in 1965, repeated in 1977, and repeated at 5 year intervals after that; this data set was collected in summer ...
Appendix A. List of the graminoid species in the experimental warming meadow, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Gunnison County, Colorado, USA.
List of the graminoid species in the experimental warming meadow, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Gunnison County, Colorado, USA.
Data from: Medical-device recalls in the UK and the device-regulation process: retrospective review of safety notices and alerts
Background: Medical devices are used widely for virtually every disease and condition. Although devices are subject to regulation, the number of recal...