Are treelines advancing? A global meta-analysis of treeline response to climate warming.

By M. Harsch, P. Hulme, Matthew S. McGlone, R. Duncan. Ecology Letters, 2009

1,277 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/57ff50412ac2e667c5d048fb9219e8ef8f0dcf3f

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Atmospheric Science

1. G. Hoch
2. C. Körner
3. Y. Vitasse
4. C. Randin
5. C. Kollas
6. Armando Lenz
7. K. Thompson
8. Benjamin Smith

In Global and Planetary Change

1. G. Hoch
2. C. Körner
3. Y. Vitasse
4. C. Randin
5. C. Kollas
6. Armando Lenz
7. C. Elkin
8. K. Thompson

Citations in the corpus

• Spatial and Temporal Variation of NDVI in Response to Climate Change and the Implication for Carbon Dynamics in Nepal (2018, background): “It can be said that the tree line area is experiencing good ecological restoration with more seedlings and saplings [86].”
• Recent expansion of erect shrubs in the Low Arctic: evidence from Eastern Nunavik (2012, background): “In a recent review, Harsch et al (2009) found evidence of latitudinal or altitudinal treeline shifts in more than half of the sites monitored since the beginning of the 20th century.”
• Climate, climate change and range boundaries (2010, background): “Comparable analyses of the distribution boundaries of individual plant species require further development; Harsch et al. (2009) report advances of the tree line since 1900 at 52% of sites, whereas retreat was observed at only 1% of sites, an excess of 51%.”
• Disproportional risk for habitat loss of high‐altitude endemic species under climate change (2011, background): “In fact, recent climate warming has already resulted in an upward shift of tree lines in many areas (Harsch et al., 2009), with consequent population extinction at the lower altitudinal range limit of mountaintop species (Walther et al., 2002; Parmesan & Yohe, 2003, Parmesan, 2006).”
• Tundra shrubification and tree-line advance amplify arctic climate warming: results from an individual-based dynamic vegetation model (2013, background): “…abundance of shrubs and forbs (Jia et al 2006, Elmendorf et al 2012); repeat landscape photography and dendrochronological analyses have documented northward and upslope shifts of tree-lines during the last century (Kullman 2002, Holtmeier and Broll 2005, Harsch et al 2009, Van et al 2011).”
• A climatic basis for microrefugia: the influence of terrain on climate (2011, background): “Indeed, some of the most compelling evidence of climate change impacts on montane vegetation comes from exposed high elevation sites (e.g. Wardle & Coleman, 1992; Grabherr et al., 1994; Pauli et al., 1996; Luckman & Kavanagh, 2000; Moiseev & Shiyatov, 2003; Lenoir et al., 2008; Harsch et al., 2009).”
• Did soil development limit spruce (Picea abies) expansion in the Central Alps during the Holocene? Testing a palaeobotanical hypothesis with a dynamic landscape model (2011, background): “Because trees growing at high elevation often exist near their thermal limits, changes in growing season length, heat sum and extreme winter cold can strongly alter species distributions and productivity (e.g. Ellenberg, 1996; Körner & Paulsen, 2004; Harsch et al., 2009).”