A century of high elevation ecosystem change in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

ABSTRACT: Mountain ecosystems serve as sentinels of change, and those in the Canadian Rocky Mountains have undergone a pronounced shift over the past century. We present quantitative analyses of 81 high-resolution image pairs of systematic historic surveys and repeat photographs of Canadian Rocky Mountain habitats, measuring treeline advance, changes in tree density, and shifts in growth form from krummholz to trees. With a time-lapse of 68 to 125 years (mean 93.5 years) between image pairs, these photographs contain novel information about long-term ecological change across broad spatial scales. In the 197 linear km of mountain habitat over 5 degrees of latitude examined, we found evidence of treeline advance at 90/104 sites, increases in tree density at 93/104 sites, and many sites (79/95) showing

SUBMITTER: Trant A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7298051 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature