The importance of ecological constraints on the control of multi-species treeline dynamics in Eastern Nunavik, Québec

American Journal of Botany

Volumn 99, Issue 10, 2012, Pages 1638-1646

  Dufour Tremblay, Geneviève ^a   de Vriendt, Laurent ^a   Lévesque, Esther ^b   Boudreau, Stéphane ^a  

^a CENTRE D ÉTUDES NORDIQUES   (Canada)

^b UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À TROIS RIVIÈRES   (Canada)

Author keywords

Allelopathy; Altitudinal treeline; Larix laricina; Picea mariana; Recruitment; Regeneration failure; Seed dispersal; Seed viability; Seedbed preference

Indexed keywords

PHEROMONE;

ALLELOPATHY; CONIFEROUS TREE; ECOTONE; GLOBAL WARMING; PLANT COMMUNITY; POPULATION BOTTLENECK; REGENERATION; RELATIVE ABUNDANCE; SEED DISPERSAL; TREELINE; VIABILITY;

ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE; ARTICLE; CANADA; ECOSYSTEM; GEOGRAPHY; GERMINATION; GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND AGING; METABOLISM; PHYSIOLOGY; PLANT SEED; SEED DISPERSAL; SEEDLING; SPECIES DIFFERENCE; TREE;

ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE; ECOSYSTEM; GEOGRAPHY; GERMINATION; PHEROMONES; QUEBEC; SEED DISPERSAL; SEEDLING; SEEDS; SPECIES SPECIFICITY; TREES;

CANADA; NUNAVIK; QUEBEC [CANADA];

EID: 84867617533     PISSN: 00029122     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3732/ajb.1200279     Document Type: Article

References (80)

1. ALLARD, M., R. FORTIER, D. SARRAZIN, F. CALMELS, D. FORTIER, D. CHAUMONT, J. P. SAVARD, ET AL. 2007. L'impact du réchauffement climatique sur les aéroports du Nunavik: Caractéristiques du pergélisol et caractérisation des processus de dégradation des pistes. Rapport à Ouranos. Université Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada.
2. ALLEN, A. E. 1929. Infl uence of Cladonia ground cover on the establishment of seedlings. Ecology 10: 354-355.
3. BATLLORI, E., J. J. CAMARERO, J. M. NINOT, AND E. GUTIÉRREZ. 2009. Seedling recruitment, survival and facilitation in alpine Pinus uncinata tree line ecotones. Implications and potential responses to climate warming. Global Ecology and Biogeography 18: 460-472.
4. BEEFTINK, H. H. 1951. Some observations on tamarack or eastern larch. Forestry Chronicle 27: 38-39.
5. BLUM, U., S. R. SHAFER, AND M. E. LEHMAN. 1999. Evidence for inhibitory allelopathic interactions involving phenolic acids in fi eld soils: Concepts vs. an experimental model. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 18: 673-693.
6. BRÅTHEN, K. A., C. H. FODSTAD, AND C. GALLET. 2010. Ecosystem disturbance reduces the allelopathic effects of Empetrum hermaphroditum humus on tundra plants. Journal of Vegetation Science 21: 786-795.
7. BROWN, K. R., D. B. ZOBEL, AND J. C. ZASADA. 1988. Seed dispersal, seedling emergence, and early survival of Larix-laricina (DuRoi) Koch, K. in the Tanana Valley, Alaska. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 18: 306-314.
8. CALLAGHAN, T. V., R. M. M. C RAWFORD, M. ERONEN, A. H OFGAARD, S. PAYETTE, W. G. REES, O. SKRE ET AL. 2002. The dynamics of the tundra-taiga boundary: An overview and suggested coordinated and integrated approach to research. Ambio (special report) 12: 3-5.
9. CALLAWAY, R. M., R. W. BROOKER, P. CHOLER, Z. KIKVIDZE, C. J. LORTIE, R. MICHALET, L. PAOLINI, ET AL. 2002. Positive interactions among alpine plants increase with stress. Nature 417: 844-848.
10. CAMARERO, J. J., AND E. GUTIÉRREZ. 2004. Pace and pattern of recent treeline dynamics: Response of ecotones to climatic variability in the Spanish Pyrenees. Climatic Change 63: 181-200.
11. CASTELLS, E., J. PEÑUELAS, AND D. W. VALENTINE. 2005. Effects of plant leachates from four boreal understorey species on soil N mineralization, and white spruce (Picea glauca) germination and seedling growth. Annals of Botany 95: 1247-1252.
12. CHOLER, P., R. MICHALET, AND R. M. CALLAWAY. 2001. Facilitation and competition on gradients in alpine plant communities. Ecology 82: 3295-3308.
13. COLE, K. 1985. Past rates of change, species richness, and a model of vegetational inertia in the Grand Canyon, Arizona. American Naturalist 125: 289-303.
14. DANBY, R. K. 2011. Monitoring forest-tundra ecotones at multiple scales. Geography Compass 5: 623-640.
15. DANBY, R. K., AND D. S. HIK. 2007. Variability, contingency and rapid change in recent subarctic alpine tree line dynamics. Journal of Ecology 95: 352-363.
16. DEVI, N., F. HAGEDORN, P. MOISEEV, H. BUGMANN, S. SHIYATOV, V. MAZEPA, AND A. RIGLING. 2008. Expanding forests and changing growth forms of Siberian larch at the Polar Urals treeline during the 20th century. Global Change Biology 14: 1581-1591.
17. DUFOUR-TREMBLAY, G. 2012. Dynamique de la limite altitudinale des arbres de l'est du Québec subarctique, analyse écologique de deux espèces conifériennes (Picea mariana et Larix laricina). Master thesis, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada.
18. DUFOUR-TREMBLAY, G., AND S. BOUDREAU. 2011. Black spruce regeneration at the treeline ecotone: Synergistic impacts of climate change and caribou activity. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 41: 460-468.
19. DUNCAN, D. P. 1954. A study of some of the factors affecting the natural regeneration of tamarack (Larix Laricina) in Minnesota. Ecology 35: 498-521.
20. ELLIOTT, D. L. 1979. The current regenerative capacity of the northern Canadian trees, Keewatin, N.W.T., Canada: Some preliminary observations. Arctic and Alpine Research 11: 243-251.
21. ENVIRONMENT CANADA. 2012. Monthly data reports for 1948-2010 [online]. Environment Canada, Gatineau Québec, Canada. Website http:// climat.meteo.gc.ca/advanceSearch/searchHistoricDataStations_f. html?searchType=stnName&timeframe=1&txtStationName=kuujju aq&searchMethod=contains&optLimit=yearRange&StartYear=1840 &EndYear=2012&Month=3&Day=6&Year=2012&selRowPerPage= 25&cmdStnSubmit=Recherche [accessed 10 December 2011].
22. FISHER, R. F. 1979. Possible allelopathic effects of reindeer-moss (Cladonia) on jack pine and white spruce. Forest Science 25: 256-260.
23. FISHER, R. F. 1980. Allelopathy: A potential cause of regeneration failure. Journal of Forestry 78: 346-350.
24. GERMINO, M., W. SMITH, AND A. RESOR. 2002. Conifer seedling distribution and survival in an alpine-treeline ecotone. Plant Ecology 162: 157-168.
25. GREENE, D., S. MACDONALD, E. CUMMING, AND S. SWIFT. 2005. Seedbed variation from the interior through the edge of a large wildfi re in Alberta. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 35: 1640-1647.
26. HARSCH, M. A., AND M. Y. BADER. 2011. Treeline form-A potential key to understanding treeline dynamics. Global Ecology and Biogeography 20: 582-596.
27. HARSCH, M. A., P. E. HULME, M. S. MCGLONE, AND R. P. DUNCAN. 2009. Are treelines advancing? A global meta-analysis of treeline response to climate warming. Ecology Letters 12: 1040-1049.
28. HOFGAARD, A., AND G. W. REES. 2008. PPS Arctic manual-Common protocols for fi eld measurements and handling of collected material [online]. Website http://ppsarctic.nina.no/fi les/PPS%20Arctic%20 Manual.pdf [accessed 23 April 2012].
29. HOLTMEIER, F. K., AND G. BROLL. 2007. Treeline advance-Driving processes and adverse factors. Landscape Online 1: 1-33.
30. HOLTMEIER, F. K., AND G. BROLL. 2010. Wind as an ecological agent at treelines in North America, the Alps, and the European subarctic. Physical Geography 31: 203-233.
31. HOULE, G., AND L. FILION. 2003. The effects of lichens on white spruce seedling establishment and juvenile growth in a spruce-lichen woodland of subarctic Quebec. Ecoscience 10: 80-84.
32. HULTÉN, E. 1968. Flora of Alaska and neighboring Territories. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, USA.
33. JÄDERLUND, A., O. ZACKRISSON, AND M. C. NILSSON. 1996. Effects of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) litter on seed germination and early seedling growth of four boreal tree species. Journal of Chemical Ecology 22: 973-986.
34. JOHNSTON, W. F. 1990. Larix laricina (Du Roi) K. Koch. Tamarack. In R. M. Burns and B. H. Honkala [eds.], Sylvics of North America, vol. 1, 141-151. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., USA.
35. JOHNSTON, W. F., AND T. M. SMITH. 1983. Black spruce. In R. M. Burns [ed.], Silvicultural systems for the major forest types of the United States. Agriculture Handbook 445, 96-98. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., USA.
36. KRUSE, M., M. STRANDBERG, AND B. STRANDBERG. 2000. Ecological effects of allelopathic plants-A review. National Environmental Research Institute NERI Technical Report, no. 315, Silkebord, Denmark.
37. KUITERS, A. T., AND H. M. SARINK. 1986. Leaching of phenolic compounds from leaf and needle litter of several deciduous and coniferous trees. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 18: 475-480.
38. KULLMAN, L. 2001. 20th Century climate warming and tree-limit rise in the southern Scandes of Sweden. Ambio 30: 72-80.
39. KULLMAN, L. 2007. Tree line population monitoring of Pinus sylvestris in the Swedish Scandes, 1973-2005: Implications for tree line theory and climate change ecology. Journal of Ecology 95: 41-52.
40. LAURIOL, B., AND J. T. GRAY. 1987. The decay and disappearance of the Late Wisconsin Ice Sheet in the Ungava Peninsula, Northern Quebec, Canada. Arctic and Alpine Research 19: 109-126.
41. LAVOIE, M., D. P ARE, AND Y. BERGERON. 2007. Relationships between microsite type and the growth and nutrition of young black spruce on post-disturbed lowland black spruce sites in eastern Canada. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 37: 62-73.
42. LUCKMAN, B. H., AND T. A. KAVANAGH. 1998. Documenting the effects of recent climate change at treeline in the Canadian Rockies. In S. B. Heidelberg [ed.], The impacts of climate variability on forests, vol. 74, 121-144. Berlin, Germany.
43. MALLIK, A. U. 2003. Conifer regeneration problems in boreal and temperate forests with ericaceous understory: Role of disturbance, seedbed limitation, and keytsone species change. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 22: 341-366.
44. MALLIK, A. U. 2008. Allelopathy: Advances, challenges and opportunities. In R. S. Zang, A. U. Mallik, and S. M. Luo [eds.], Allelopathy in sustainable agriculture and forestry, 25-38. Springer-Verlag, New York, NY, USA.
45. MALLIK, A. U., AND F. PELLISSIER. 2000. Effects of Vaccinium myrtillus on spruce regeneration: Testing the notion of coevolutionary signifi cance of allelopathy. Journal of Chemical Ecology 26: 2197-2209.
46. MEUNIER, C., L. SIROIS, AND Y. BÉGIN. 2007. Climate and Picea mariana seed maturation relationships: A multi-scale perspective. Ecological Monographs 77: 361-376.
47. MORIN, A., AND S. PAYETTE. 1984. Recent expansion of tamarack to the forest limit (northern Quebec). Canadian Journal of Botany 62: 1404-1408.
48. MUNIER, A., L. HERMANUTZ, J. D. JACOBS, AND K. LEWIS. 2010. The interacting effects of temperature, ground disturbance, and herbivory on seedling establishment: Implications for treeline advance with climate warming. Plant Ecology 210: 19-30.
49. NEWMAN, E. I. 1978. Allelopathy: Adaptation or accident? In J. B. Harborne [eds.], Biochemical aspects of plant and animal coevolution, 327-342. Academic Press, London, UK.
50. NILSSON, U., AND G. ÖRLANDER. 1999. Vegetation management on grassdominated clearcuts planted with Norway spruce in southern Sweden. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 29: 1015-1026.
51. NILSSON, M. C., P. HÖGBERG, O. ZACKRISSON, AND W. FENGYOU. 1993. Allelopathic effects by Empetrum hermaphroditum on development and nitrogen uptake by roots and mycorrhizae of Pinus silvestris. Canadian Journal of Botany 71: 620-628.
52. NILSSON, M. C., AND O. ZACKRISSON. 1992. Inhibition of Scots pine seedling establishment by Empetrum hermaphroditum. Journal of Chemical Ecology 18: 1857-1870.
53. OAKLEY, B. B., M. P. NORTH, AND J. F. FRANKLIN. 2006. Facilitative and competitive effects of a N-fi xing shrub on white fi r saplings. Forest Ecology and Management 233: 100-107.
54. PAYETTE, S. 1976. Les limites écologiques de la zone hémi-arctique entre la mer d'Hudson et la baie d'Ungava, Nouveau-Québec. Cahiers de Geographie de Quebec 20: 347-364.
55. PAYETTE, S. 1993. The range limit of boreal tree species in Québec-Labrador: An ecological and paleoecological interpretation. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 79: 7-30.
56. PAYETTE, S., J. DESHAYE, AND H. GILBERT. 1982. Tree seed populations at the treeline in Riviere-Aux-Feuilles area, northern Quebec, Canada. Arctic and Alpine Research 14: 215-221.
57. PAYETTE, S., AND L. FILION. 1985. White spruce expansion at the tree line and recent climatic change. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 15: 241-251.
58. PAYETTE, S., M. J. FORTIN, AND I. GAMACHE. 2001. The subarctic forest-tundra: The structure of a biome in a changing climate. Bioscience 51: 709-718.
59. PAYETTE, S., AND R. GAGNON. 1979. Tree-line dynamics in Ungava peninsula, northern Quebec. Holarctic Ecology 2: 239-248.
60. PAYETTE, S., AND R. GAGNON. 1985. Late Holocene deforestation and tree regeneration in the forest-tundra Quebec. Nature 313: 570-572.
61. PEARSON, R. G., AND T. P. DAWSON. 2003. Predicting the impacts of climate change on the distribution of species: Are bioclimate envelope models useful? Global Ecology and Biogeography 12: 361-371.
62. PELLISSIER, F. 1994. Effect of phenolic compounds in humus on the natural regeneration of spruce. Phytochemistry 36: 865-867.
63. POLUNIN, N. 1959. Circumpolar Artic fl ora. Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK.
64. PRENTICE, I. C., W. CRAMER, S. P. HARRISON, R. LEEMANS, R. A. MONSERUD, AND A. M. SOLOMON. 1992. A global biome model based on plant physiology and dominance, soil properties and climate. Journal of Biogeography 19: 117-134.
65. PRÉVOST, M. 1996. Effets du scarifi age sur les propriétés du sol et l'ensemencement naturel dans une pessière noire à mousses de la forêt boréale québécoise. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 26: 72-86.
66. PUTZ, F. E., AND C. D. CANHAM. 1992. Mechanisms of arrested succession in shrublands-Root and shoot competition between shrubs and tree seedlings. Forest Ecology and Management 49: 267-275.
67. RASBAND, W. 2011. ImageJ: Image processing and analysis in Java [online]. Website http://www.ccpo.odu.edu/~lizsmith/Overspace_Institute_04/NASAImage200_and_ImageJ%20Documentation/ImageJ_Manual. pdf [accessed 13 January 2010]
68. ROWE, J. S., R. W. WEIN, AND D. A. MACLEAN. 1983. Concepts of fi re effects on plant individuals and species. In R. W. Wein and D. A. Maclean [eds.], The role of fi re in northern circumpolar ecosystems, 135-154. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK.
69. SHANKMAN, D., AND C. DALY. 1988. Forest regeneration above tree limit depressed by fi re in the Colorado Front Range. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 115: 272-279.
70. SIGGINS, H. W. 1933. Distribution and rate of fall of conifer seeds. Journal of Agricultural Research 47: 119-128.
71. SIROIS, L. 2000. Spatiotemporal variation in black spruce cone and seed crops along a boreal forest-tree line transect. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 30: 900-909.
72. SMITH, W. K., M. J. GERMINO, D. M. JOHNSON, AND K. REINHARDT. 2009. The altitude of alpine treeline: A bellwether of climate change effects. Botanical Review 75: 163-190.
73. SUAREZ, F., D. B. IINKLEY, AND M. W. KAYE. 1999. Expansion of forest stands into tundra in the Noatak National Preserve, northwest Alaska. Ecoscience 6: 465-470.
74. SULLIVAN, P., AND B. SVEINBJÖRNSSON. 2010. Microtopographic control of treeline advance in Noatak National Preserve, Northwest Alaska. Ecosystems 13: 275-285.
75. TRANQUILLINI, W. 1979. Physiological ecology of the alpine timberline: Tree existence at high altitudes with special reference to the European Alps. Springer, Berlin, Germany.
76. TREMBLAY, B., E. LÉVESQUE, AND S. BOUDREAU. 2012. Recent expansion of erect shrubs in the Low Arctic: Evidence from Eastern Nunavik. Environmental Research Letters 7 (035501).
77. VEILLEUX-NOLIN, M. 2011. Infl uence de la saison et de la sévérité des feux récents sur la régénération de l'épinette noire dans la pessière noire à mousses du Québec. Masters thesis, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada.
78. WHEELER, J. A., L. HERMANUTZ, AND P. M. M ARINO. 2011. Feathermoss seedbeds facilitate black spruce seedling recruitment in the foresttundra ecotone (Labrador, Canada). Oikos 120: 1263-1271.
79. ZACKRISSON, O., AND M. C. NILSSON. 1992. Allelopathic effects by Empetrum hermaphroditum on seed germination of two boreal species. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 22: 1310-1319.
80. ZAMFIR, M. 2000. Effects of bryophytes and lichens on seedling emergence of alvar plants: Evidences from greenhouse experiments. Oikos 88: 603-611.