Both seed germination and seedling mortality increase with experimental warming and fertilization in a subarctic tundra.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is expected to force many species in arctic regions to migrate and track their climatic niche. This requires recruitment from seed, which currently shows very low rates in arctic regions, where long-lived and vegetatively reproducing plants dominate. Therefore, we pose the question whether recruitment (germination and seedling establishment) in arctic regions will significantly improve in a warmer world, and thus allow species to follow their climatic niche. We used a full factorial experiment to examine if realistic warmer temperatures (+3 °C; infrared radiation) and increased nitrogen availability (+1.4 g N m^-2 year^-1) affected germination, seedling survival and above- and below-ground seedling biomass in five species common in subarctic regions (A

SUBMITTER: Milbau A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5629451 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature