Thermophilization of adult and juvenile tree communities in the northern tropical Andes.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is expected to cause shifts in the composition of tropical montane forests towards increased relative abundances of species whose ranges were previously centered at lower, hotter elevations. To investigate this process of "thermophilization," we analyzed patterns of compositional change over the last decade using recensus data from a network of 16 adult and juvenile tree plots in the tropical forests of northern Andes Mountains and adjacent lowlands in northwestern Colombia. Analyses show evidence that tree species composition is strongly linked to temperature and that composition is changing directionally through time, potentially in response to climate change and increasing temperatures. Mean rates of thermophilization [thermal migration rate (TMR), °C ⋅ y(-1)] across all

SUBMITTER: Duque A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4553780 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature