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Large-scale diachronic surveys of the composition and dynamics of plant communities in Pyrenean snowbeds

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Abstract

The impact of ongoing climate change on plant communities varies according to vegetation type and location across the globe. Snowbed flora count among the most sensitive vegetation due to their dependence on long-lasting snow patches. This is especially the case toward their rear distribution edge, where warming has already induced a marked decrease in snow deposition. Thus, analysing the dynamics of snowbed plant communities is crucial for understanding the ecological processes that condition their persistence under new environmental conditions. The Pyrenees represent the southern distribution limit of several eurosiberian snowbed species. We surveyed eight snowbeds based on permanent plots, where the presence of each taxon was recorded annually between 2012 and 2019. We analysed vegetation patterns between sites and plots, related them to environmental gradients, and assessed temporal trends of community dynamics. We detected important between-site differences regarding species composition. However, these differences were not supported by species' biogeographical patterns, which suggests that local abiotic factors filter species with distinct autecology. In parallel, temporal community turnover was observed through the expansion of widespread grassland species, which supports the hypothesis of colonisation of snowbeds by common alpine taxa. Such changes could be related to a decrease in snow cover over recent times, which releases extreme environmental constraints to plant growth. Therefore, it is crucial to characterise fine-scale ecological conditions to forecast plant community dynamics and provide reliable information for conserving snowbed vegetation across the Palearctic.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

Codes are freely available on the GP Github account (github.com/Guillaume-Papuga/analyse_snowbed).

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Acknowledgements

The authors deeply thank all botanists (bachelor's and master's students, colleagues from the different structures) for their help in conducting field surveys.

Funding

Part of this work has been conducted as a development of the POCTEFA project “Florapyr” coordinated by the Conservatoire Botanique National des Pyrénées et de Midi-Pyrénées CBNPMP. All fieldwork and climatic surveys have benefited from this European funding. In addition, TM acknowledges support from the University of Montpellier under a grant for Master's students. GP thanks the University of Montpellier for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. AMAP, Univ Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAe, IRD, Montpellier, France

    Thomas Masclaux & Guillaume Papuga

  2. Conservatoire botanique national méditerranéen de Porquerolles, Antenne Languedoc-Roussillon, 2214 Boulevard de la Lironde, 34980, Montferrier-sur-Lez, France

    Thomas Masclaux, Laure Sirvent & Olivier Argagnon

  3. Conservatoire botanique national des Pyrénées et de Midi-Pyrénées, Syndicat mixte Conservatoire botanique pyrénéen, Vallon de Salut, 65203, Bagnères-de-Bigorre, France

    Gérard Largier, Jocelyne Cambecèdes, Elodie Hamdi, Ludovic Olicard & Anne-Sophie Rudi-Dencausse

  4. Office National des Forêts, 262 route de Landorthe, 31800, Saint-Gaudens, France

    Delphine Fallour-Rubio

  5. Centre d’Estudis de la Neu i de la Muntanya d’Andorra (CENMA) - Institut d’Estudis Andorrans (IEA), Avinguda Rocafort 21-23, Edifici Molí, AD600, Sant Julià de Lòria, Andorra

    Benjamin Komac

  6. Nature En Occitanie, 14 rue de Tivoli, 31000, Toulouse, France

    Mathieu Menand

  7. Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences. Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio), University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Estela Illa

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  1. Thomas Masclaux
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  2. Gérard Largier
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  3. Jocelyne Cambecèdes
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  12. Olivier Argagnon
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Contributions

T.M. analysed the data, wrote the paper, and conducted additional surveys for the project. G.P., E.I. and O.A. conceived the study, wrote the paper and analysed the data. CBNMP & CENMA & UB created the original protocol. G.L. designed and coordinated the European program. All authors participated in the fieldwork.

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Correspondence to Guillaume Papuga.

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Communicated by Simon Pierce.

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Illa Estela, Argagnon Olivier and Papuga Guillaume are co-senior authors.

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Masclaux, T., Largier, G., Cambecèdes, J. et al. Large-scale diachronic surveys of the composition and dynamics of plant communities in Pyrenean snowbeds. Plant Ecol 223, 1103–1119 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-022-01261-6

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