Snow is an important control of plant community functional composition in oroarctic tundra.

ABSTRACT: The functional composition of plant communities is a critical modulator of climate change impacts on ecosystems, but it is not a simple function of regional climate. In the Arctic tundra, where climate change is proceeding the most rapidly, communities have not shifted their trait composition as predicted by spatial temperature-trait relationships. Important causal pathways are thus missing from models of trait composition change. Here, we study causes of plant community functional variation in an oroarctic tundra landscape in Kilpisjärvi, Finland. We consider the community-weighted means of plant vegetative height, as well as two traits related to the leaf economic spectrum. Specifically, we model their responses to locally measured summer air temperature, snow conditions, and soil resour

SUBMITTER: Happonen K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6825026 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature