Journal article
Relations of Alpine Plant Communities across Environmental Gradients: Multilevel versus Multiscale Analyses
Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol.107(1), pp.41-53
01/02/2017
DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2016.1218267
Abstract
Alpine plant communities vary, and their environmental covariates could influence their response to climate change. A single multilevel model of how alpine plant community composition is determined by hierarchical relations is compared to a separate examination of those relations at different scales. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling of species cover for plots in four regions across the Rocky Mountains created dependent variables. Climate variables are derived for the four regions from interpolated data. Plot environmental variables are measured directly and the presence of thirty-seven site characteristics is recorded and used to create additional independent variables. Multilevel and best subsets regressions are used to determine the strength of the hypothesized relations. The ordinations indicate structure in the assembly of plant communities. The multilevel analyses, although revealing significant relations, provide little explanation; of the site variables, those related to site microclimate are most important. In multiscale analyses (whole and separate regions), different variables are better explanations within the different regions. This result indicates weak environmental niche control of community composition. The weak relations of the structure in the patterns of species association to the environment indicates that either alpine vegetation represents a case of the neutral theory of biogeography being a valid explanation or that it represents disequilibrium conditions. The implications of neutral theory and disequilibrium explanations are similar: Response to climate change will be difficult to quantify above equilibrium background turnover.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Relations of Alpine Plant Communities across Environmental Gradients: Multilevel versus Multiscale Analyses
- Creators
- George P Malanson - University of Iowa, Geographical and Sustainability SciencesDale L Zimmerman - University of Iowa, Statistics and Actuarial ScienceMitch Kinney - University of IowaDaniel B Fagre - United States Geological Survey
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol.107(1), pp.41-53
- Publisher
- Routledge; ABINGDON
- DOI
- 10.1080/24694452.2016.1218267
- ISSN
- 0004-5608
- eISSN
- 1467-8306
- Number of pages
- 13 pages
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/02/2017
- Academic Unit
- Geographical and Sustainability Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9983561198702771
Metrics
42 Record Views