Topographic controls on alpine treeline patterns on Changbai Mountain, China

The control mechanisms of topography on alpine treeline pattern are critical to understanding treeline dynamics and future changes. These mechanisms have not been understood quite well enough because of increasing human disturbance and low data resolution. In this study, the relationship between the treeline pattern and topography was analyzed based on high spatial resolution remote sensing data and a digital elevation model in an area in Changbai Mountain with little human disturbance. Future treeline patterns were also predicted. The results showed that (a) aspects with high solar radiation and low snow cover have a high coverage rate of trees, (b) the peak coverage rate of trees switches from low slopes (<5°) to medium slopes (5°∼25°) as the elevation rises because of the extreme environment, (c) the coverage rate of trees is a function that depends on environmental factors controlled by topography, (d) the future treeline pattern is controlled by new temperature mechanisms, new environmental factors and the reallocation effect of topography. Our research implies that topography controls the treeline pattern and changes in the treeline pattern associated with global warming, due to the effect of global warming on environmental factors. This study may well explain the causes of heterogeneous changes in the treeline pattern in the horizontal direction as well as differences in treeline response to climate warming.

[1]  I. Hustich.  On the recent expansion of the Scotch pine in northern Europe , 1958 .

[2]  Stephen J. Walsh,et al.  Influence of snow patterns and snow avalanches on the alpine treeline ecotone , 1994 .

[3]  G. Jacoby,et al.  Tree-ring width and maximum latewood density at the North American tree line: parameters of climatic change , 1992 .

[4]  J. Dozier.  Spectral Signature of Alpine Snow Cover from the Landsat Thematic Mapper , 1989 .

[5]  S. Payette,et al.  Reconstruction of tree-line vegetation response to long-term climate change , 1989, Nature.

[6]  N. DiGirolamo,et al.  MODIS snow-cover products , 2002 .

[7]  Ralph Dubayah,et al.  Topographic Solar Radiation Models for GIS , 1995, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[8]  J. Camarero,et al.  Pace and Pattern of Recent Treeline Dynamics: Response of Ecotones to Climatic Variability in the Spanish Pyrenees , 2004 .

[9]  C. Keske.  High Mountain Ecosystems: How Much Love Can They Sustain? , 2010 .

[10]  Gabriele Broll,et al.  Treeline advance - driving processes and adverse factors , 2007 .

[11]  A. Klein,et al.  Improving snow cover mapping in forests through the use of a canopy reflectance model , 1998 .

[12]  S. Walsh,et al.  Influences of Geomorphology and Geology on Alpine Treeline in the American West—More Important than Climatic Influences? , 2007 .

[13]  Friedrich-Karl Holtmeier.  Geoökologische Beobachtungen und Studien an der subarktischen und alpinen Waldgrenze in vergleichender Sicht (nördliches Fennoskandien/Zentralalpen) , 1974 .

[14]  Zhao Shu,et al.  Composition, structure and species diversity of plant communities along an altitudinal gradient on the northern slope of Mt. Changbai, Northeast China , 2004 .

[15]  John F. O'Callaghan,et al.  The extraction of drainage networks from digital elevation data , 1984, Comput. Vis. Graph. Image Process..

[16]  F. Biondi.  A 400-year Tree-ring Chronology from the Tropical Treeline of North America , 2001, Ambio.

[17]  G. Miehe.  Vegetation patterns on Mount Everest as influenced by monsoon and föhn , 2004, Vegetatio.

[18]  L. Brubaker,et al.  Reconstruction of Annual Temperature (1590–1979) for Longmire, Washington, Derived from Tree Rings , 1986, Quaternary Research.

[19]  A. Lloyd,et al.  ECOLOGICAL HISTORIES FROM ALASKAN TREE LINES PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO FUTURE CHANGE , 2005 .

[20]  G. Wieser,et al.  Trees at their Upper Limit: treelife limitation at the alpine timberline. , 2007 .

[21]  P. Vitousek.  Beyond Global Warming: Ecology and Global Change , 1994 .

[22]  Gabriele Broll,et al.  Sensitivity and response of northern hemisphere altitudinal and polar treelines to environmental change at landscape and local scales , 2005 .

[23]  L. Kullman.  TREE-LIMITS AND MONTANE FORESTS IN THE SWEDISH SCANDES : SENSITIVE BIOMONITORS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND VARIABILITY , 1998 .

[24]  L. Kullman.  Change and stability in the altitude of the birch tree-limit in the southern Swedish Scandes 1915-1975 , 1979 .

[25]  Yaoqi Zhang.  Deforestation and Forest Transition: Theory and Evidence in China , 2000 .

[26]  C. Körner.  Plant ecology at high elevations , 2021, Alpine Plant Life.

[27]  R. Duncan,et al.  Climate change and tree-ring relationships of Nothofagus menziesii tree-line forests , 2001 .

[28]  David M. Cairns,et al.  Sigmoid wave transitions at alpine treeline , 2003 .

[29]  C. Körner,et al.  A world‐wide study of high altitude treeline temperatures , 2004 .

[30]  H. Vanhanen,et al.  World Forests from Deforestation to Transition? , 2000, World Forests.

[31]  David R. Butler,et al.  The changing alpine treeline : the example of Glacier National Park, MT, USA , 2009 .

[32]  L. Kullman.  One century of treeline change and stability - experiences from the Swedish Scandes. , 2010 .

[33]  D. Butler,et al.  Adequacies and deficiencies of alpine and subalpine treeline studies in the national parks of the western USA , 2011 .

[34]  S. Solomon.  The Physical Science Basis : Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , 2007 .

[35]  R. Barry,et al.  Mountains and Man. A Study of Process and Environment , 1981 .

[36]  Gianfranco De Grandi,et al.  Central African Forest Cover Revisited: A Multisatellite Analysis , 2000 .

[37]  T. Allen,et al.  Spatial and compositional pattern of alpine treeline, Glacier National Park, Montana , 1996 .

[38]  J. Kerr,et al.  From space to species: ecological applications for remote sensing , 2003 .

[39]  K. Beven,et al.  A physically based, variable contributing area model of basin hydrology , 1979 .

[40]  R. Stone.  A Threatened Nature Reserve Breaks Down Asian Borders , 2006, Science.

[41]  Martijn Gough.  Climate change , 2009, Canadian Medical Association Journal.

[42]  O. Edenhofer,et al.  Mitigation from a cross-sectoral perspective , 2007 .

[43]  Robert Olson,et al.  PHOTOINHIBITION OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS IN NATURAL WATERS* , 1980 .

[44]  V. Mazepa.  Stand density in the last millennium at the upper tree-line ecotone in the Polar Ural Mountains , 2005 .

[45]  Daniel G. Brown.  Predicting vegetation types at treeline using topography and biophysical disturbance variables , 1994 .

[46]  Gudrun Wallentin,et al.  Understanding alpine tree line dynamics: An individual-based model , 2008 .

[47]  F. Holtmeier,et al.  Mountain Timberlines—Ecology, Patchiness, And Dynamics , 2003 .

[48]  Dorothy K. Hall,et al.  Assessment of Snow-Cover Mapping Accuracy in a Variety of Vegetation-Cover Densities in Central Alaska , 1998 .