Different dispersal rates and declining climate suitability shape future vegetation compositions across the Arctic: implications for the boreal forest - tundra boundary
Listed in
This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.Abstract
Aim
We investigate how species-specific dispersal abilities might influence future Arctic plant distributions and large-scale dynamics at the boreal forest - tundra boundary until 2100
Location
circumpolar terrestrial Arctic (boreal forest, taiga and tundra)
Taxon
1550 plant species
Methods
We developed climate-driven species distribution models (SDM) to predict species-specific emerging climate niches under different climate scenarios. The model was parameterized using occurrence data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility database (GBIF) and temperature and bioclimatic variables from the CHELSA data set. Dispersal rates were assigned to each species using a trait-based approach and were used to predict future habitat with a distance-based probability over time.
Results
Plant species are predicted to occupy on average only 12.3% (1.5 – 53.9 95% CI) of their emerging climate niches, with half of the species unable to colonize new habitat by 2100 due to limited dispersal distances. In dispersal limited predictions, migration to higher altitudes played a greater role than northward shifts, and decolonization of cells by species (extirpation) due to decreasing climate suitability changed species composition more than dispersal. Boreal tree species were predicted to expand into the tundra reducing the area without trees.
Main conclusions
Future plant species distributions and resulting large-scale compositions are affected by species-specific dispersal rates. Even though new suitable niches emerge prominently towards the north, higher altitudes might be more relevant given their accessibility by dispersal over the next century. Although climate niche dynamics could support higher plant species richness across the Arctic, overall richness is expected to decline with climate warming due to dispersal limitations. The colonization of new habitats via dispersal in combination with the decolonization of former habitats due to declining climatic suitability on species level are predicted to cause large-scale changes in species composition especially at the boundary between the boreal forest and the tundra biome.
