Journal article
Climatic and geographic relations of alpine tundra floras in western North America
Alpine Botany, Vol.125(1), p.21
0
04/01/2015
DOI: 10.1007/s00035-014-0144-9
Abstract
Projections indicate that alpine tundra-specific vegetation may begin to disappear as global warming persists. We develop a context for possible changes to inform modeling, monitoring and mitigation strategies. We ask the degree to which similarity of floras is associated with climatic differences versus geographic distance and pattern among 56 mountain ranges in three major mountain systems across the western USA and southwestern Canada. We use, and contrast, Mantel tests and Canonical Correspondence Analysis incorporating Moran's eigenvector mapping to analyze the dissimilarity among the floras. We use Sorenson's dissimilarity for the floras, a distance matrix for all possible pairs, and broad-scale climate variables derived from the Daymet climate interpolation program. We also mapped the scores of ranges on the eigenvectors onto latitude and longitude and interpreted these visual patterns. The differences in vegetation among these sites are more strongly correlated to geography than to climate, but both winter and summer precipitations are still important. The importance of geography as geometry indicates that spatial processes affect the assemblage of floras. The explanatory power of geography means that changes in climate may not affect beta-diversity, and modeling, monitoring and mitigation strategies should include location factors.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Climatic and geographic relations of alpine tundra floras in western North America
- Creators
- George P Malanson - University of Iowa, Geographical and Sustainability SciencesAshley B CheneyMitchell Kinney
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Alpine Botany, Vol.125(1), p.21
- Event
- 0
- Publisher
- Springer
- DOI
- 10.1007/s00035-014-0144-9
- ISSN
- 1664-2201
- eISSN
- 1664-221X
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/01/2015
- Description audience
- Academic
- Academic Unit
- Geographical and Sustainability Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9983743292202771
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