Community and species-specific responses of plant traits to 23 years of experimental warming across subarctic tundra plant communities.

ABSTRACT: To improve understanding of how global warming may affect competitive interactions among plants, information on the responses of plant functional traits across species to long-term warming is needed. Here we report the effect of 23 years of experimental warming on plant traits across four different alpine subarctic plant communities: tussock tundra, Dryas heath, dry heath and wet meadow. Open-top chambers (OTCs) were used to passively warm the vegetation by 1.5-3 °C. Changes in leaf width, leaf length and plant height of 22 vascular plant species were measured. Long-term warming significantly affected all plant traits. Overall, plant species were taller, with longer and wider leaves, compared with control plots, indicating an increase in biomass in warmed plots, with 13 species having sign

SUBMITTER: Baruah G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5451416 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature