Contexts for change in alpine tundra

Physical Geography
By: , and 

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Abstract

Because alpine tundra is responding to climate change, a need exists to understand the meaning of observed changes. To provide context for such interpretation, the relevance of niche and neutral theories of biogeography and the continuum and classification approaches to biogeographic description are assessed. Two extensive studies of alpine tundra, from the Indian Peaks area, Colorado and Glacier National Park, Montana, are combined. The data are ordinated to describe relations. The pattern that emerges is one of a continuum of vegetation, but with the distinctions one might expect from distant sites. The relationships of the similarity of vegetation on all possible pairs of sites to the environmental differences and geographic distances are analyzed using Mantel correlations. Because distance and environmental differences in climate between the two sites are correlated, partial correlations are weak but still significant. More advanced analyses are suggested for this environment prior to interpretation of monitoring efforts such as GLORIA.

Study Area

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Contexts for change in alpine tundra
Series title Physical Geography
DOI 10.2747/0272-3646.32.2.97
Volume 32
Issue 2
Year Published 2011
Language English
Publisher Taylor & Francis
Publisher location Columbia, MD
Contributing office(s) Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center
Description 17 p.
First page 97
Last page 113
Country United States
State Colorado, Montana
Other Geospatial Glacier National Park, Indian Peaks Area
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
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