Abstract
As climate change intensifies, finding an ecological indicator to quickly and accurately reflect the impact on mountain ecosystems is necessary. The low treeline/timberline, highly sensitive to climate variability and changes significantly within 5–10 years, provides a new way to study the response to regional climate variability. This study explored the distribution and vertical displacement patterns of the low treeline in the Upper Minjiang River of China, using SPOT remote sensing images in 1999 and 2013 and long-term positional observations. Using the Geodetector model, the study investigated the dominant climatic factors influencing the low treeline displacement. The results showed that the low treeline was located at 1700–3200 m elevation on sunny slopes (southeast, south, southwest, and west slopes) with slopes over 25°. From 1999 to 2013, the low treeline moved downward by 6 m from 2561±264 m to 2555±265 m, along with a warm–humid climate tendency. The downward displacement was greater on slopes over 25° and shady slopes (−20 m and −10 m, respectively) than on slopes ≤ 25° and sunny slopes. Additionally, the downward was greater in the warm and humid Zagunao River Basin (−15 m) compared to the arid valley center (−7 m) and the cold Heishui River Basin (−3 m). Meanwhile, the low treeline displacement correlated negatively with precipitation and relative humidity variations at the significance level of 0.05, with correlation coefficients of −0.572 and −0.551, respectively. Variations in relative humidity and temperature significantly affected the spatial differentiation of low treeline displacement with influencing power of 0.246 (p =0.036 < 0.05) and 0.183 (p =0.032 < 0.05), respectively. Thus, the low treeline is a moisture-limited line, and its formation and variation are closely related to regional water–heat balance. The study clarifies the indicative value of the low treeline for climate variability in mountain areas and can provide references for ecological restoration in arid valleys.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of Data/Materials: The datasets generated during this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and within the framework of cooperation agreements and scientific research projects.
References
Achim A, Moreau G, Coops NC, et al. (2022) The changing culture of silviculture. Forestry 95(2): 143–152. https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpab047
Alkama R, Forzieri G, Duveiller G, et al. (2022) Vegetation-based climate mitigation in a warmer and greener world. Nat Commun 13: 606. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28305-9
Angelica F, Mariusz G, Ioan T, et al. (2016) Tree and timberline shifts in the northern Romanian Carpathians during the Holocene and the responses to environmental changes. Quat Sci Rev 134: 100–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.12.020
Boulanger Y, Pascual J, Bouchard M, et al. (2022) Multi-model projections of tree species performance in Quebec, Canada under future climate change. Glob Chang Biol 28: 1884–1902. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16014
Boucher D, Boulanger Y, Aubin I, et al. (2018) Current and projected cumulative impacts of fire, drought, and insects on timber volumes across Canada. Ecol Appl 28(5): 1245–1259. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1724
Büntgen U, Piermattei A, Crivellaro A, et al. (2022) Common Era treeline fluctuations and their implications for climate reconstructions. Glob Planet Change 219: 103979. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2022.103979
Cao Y, Qian YL, Sun YL, et al. (2020) Spatial-temporal variations of forest vegetation and climatic driving force analysis in southwest China based on MODIS NDVI and climate data. Ecology and Environmental Sciences 29(5): 857–865. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.16258/j.cnki.1674-5906.2020.05.001
Cui HT, Liu HY, Dai JH (2005) Research of Mountainous Ecology and Alpine Timberline. Science Press, Beijing, China. (In Chinese)
Editorial Board of Vegetation Atlas of China of Chinese Academy of Science (2005) Vegetation Atlas of China. Science Press, Beijing, China. (In Chinese)
Finckh M, Wendefeuer J, Meller P (2021) Frost-driven lower treelines in Angola and their implications for tropical forest-grassland mosaics. J Veg Sci 32: e13084. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.13084
Fritts HC, Smith DG, Cardis JW, et al. (1965) Tree-ring characteristics along a vegetation gradient in northern Arizona. Ecology 46(4): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.2307/1934872
Garbarino M, Malandra F, Dilts T, et al. (2020) Upper and lower treeline biogeographic patterns in semi-arid pinyon-juniper woodlands. J Biogeogr 47(12): 2634–2644. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13952
Girona MM, Aakala T, Aquilué N, et al. (2023) Challenges for the sustainable management of the boreal forest under climate change. In: Girona MM, Morin H, Gauthier S, et al. (eds.), Boreal forests in the face of climate change. Advances in Global Change Research vol. 74. Springer, Cham. pp 773–837. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15988-6_31
Griggs RF (1946) The timberline of North America and their interpretation. Ecology 27: 275–289. https://doi.org/10.2307/1933539
Guo YL, Wang Q, Fan M (2017) Exploring the relationship between the arid valley boundary’s displacement and climate change during 1999–2013 in the upper reaches of the Min River, China. ISPRS Int J Geo-Inf 6(5): 146. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi6050146
Guo ZF, Boeing WJ, Xu YY, et al. (2023) Data-driven discoveries on widespread contamination of freshwater reservoirs by dominant antibiotic resistance genes. Water Res 229: 119466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2022.119466
He JH, Pan ZZ, Liu DF, et al. (2019) Exploring the regional differences of eco-system health and its driving factors in China. Sci Total Environ 673: 553–564. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.465
Hof AR, Montoro GM, Fortin MJ, et al. (2021) Using landscape simulation models to help balance conflicting goals in changing forests. Front Ecol Evol 9: 75736. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.795736
Huang C, Yang Q, Huang W (2021) Analysis of the spatial and temporal changes of NDVI and its driving factors in the Wei and Jing River Basins. Int J Environ Res Public Health 18: 11863. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182211863
Jiang ZX (1993) Zonality of distribution of physico-geographical zones in China. Chinese Geogr Sci 3(4): 308–325. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02664284
Jiao KW, Gao JB, Wu SH, et al. (2018) Research progress on the response processes of vegetation activity to climate change. Acta Ecol Sin 38(6): 2229–2238. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.5846/stxb201702240305
Jobbágy EG, Jackson RB (2000) Global controls of forest line elevation in the northern and southern hemispheres. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 9: 253–268. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00162.x
Klinge M, Dulamsuren C, Erasmi S, et al. (2018) Climate effects on vegetation vitality at the treeline of boreal forests of Mongolia. Biogeosciences 15(5): 1319–1333. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-1319-2018
Körner C (2021) The cold range limit of trees. Trends Ecol Evol 36: 979–989. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2021.06.011
Kruse S, Wieczorek M, Jeltsch F, et al. (2016) Treeline dynamics in Siberia under changing climates as inferred from an individual-based model for Larix. Ecol Modell 338: 101–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2016.08.003
Li ZX, He YQ, Xin HJ, et al. (2010) Spatio-temporal variations of temperature and precipitation in Mts. Hengduan region during 1960–2008. Acta Geogr Sin 65: 563–579. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.11821/xb201005006
Liang E, Wang Y, Piao S, et al. (2016) Species interactions slow warming-induced upward shifts of treelines on the Tibetan Plateau. PNAS 113: 4380–4385. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1520582113
Liu JG, Gou XH, Gunina A, et al. (2020) Soil nitrogen pool drives plant tissue traits in alpine treeline ecotones. For Ecol Manage 477: 118490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118490
Liu Q, Bao WK, Qiao YK, et al. (1996) Studies on the interspecific relationship among dominant species of the semi-arid valley scrubs in Maoxian on the upper reaches of the Minjiang River. Chinese Journal of Applied and Environmental Biology 2(1): 36–42. (In Chinese)
Liu YC, Li Z, Chen YN (2021) Continuous warming shift greening towards browning in the southeast and northwest High Mountain Asia. Sci Rep 11: 17920. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-97240-4
Marr JW (1977) Development and movement of tree islands near the upper limit of tree growth in the Southern Rocky Mountains. Ecology 58: 1159–1164. https://doi.org/10.2307/1936937
McEvoy DJ, Huntington JL, Abatzoglou JT, et al. (2012) An evaluation of multiscalar drought indices in Nevada and eastern California. Earth Interact 16(18): https://doi.org/10.1175/2012EI000447.1
Molina E, Valeria O, Martin M, et al. (2022) Long-term impacts of forest management practices under climate change on structure, composition, and fragmentation of the Canadian boreal landscape. Forests 13(8): 1292. https://doi.org/10.3390/f13081292
Mundo IA, Villalba R, Veblen TT, et al. (2017) Fire history in southern Patagonia: human and climate influences on fire activity in Nothofagus pumilio forests. Ecosphere 8:e01932. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1932
Nguyen TA, Kellenberger B, Tuia D (2022) Mapping forest in the Swiss Alps treeline ecotone with explainable deep learning. Remote Sens Environ 281: 113217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2022.113217
Pan SA, Li XH, Feng QH, et al. (2022) Response of Abies facxoniana to future climate change and its potential distribution patterns in Sichuan Province. Acta Ecol Sin 42(10): 4055–4064. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.5846/stxb202012313336
Romme WH, Turner MG (1991) Implications of global climate change for biogeographic patterns in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Conserv Biol 5: 373–386. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.1991.tb00151.x
Rother MT, Veblen TT (2016) Limited conifer regeneration following wildfires in dry ponderosa pine forests of the Colorado Front Range. Ecosphere 7(12): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1594
Shi JQ, Yu EX, Xu YL, et al. (2021) Simulating the effects of forest landscape restoration under climate change in southwest subalpine forests in China: a case study in the upper Zagunao watershed of the Minjiang River Basin. Chinese Journal of Applied and Environmental Biology 2021, 27(3), 716–724. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.19675/j.cnki.1006-687x.2021.02044
Simeone C, Maneta MP, Holden ZA, et al. (2019) Coupled ecohydrology and plant hydraulics modeling predicts ponderosa pine seedling mortality and lower treeline in the US Northern Rocky Mountains. New Phytol 221(4): 1814–1830. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15499
Tang XJ, Guo YL, Fan M, et al. (2017) Moisture characteristics and numerical simulation of forest-farmland-grassland soil in arid valley region in the upper reaches of Min River. Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin 33(7): 128–133. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.11924/j.issn.1000-6850.casb16050006
Tian L, Fu WX, Wang L (2022) Dynamics of the alpine timberline and its response to climate change in the Hengduan Mountains over the period 1985–2015. Ecol Indic 135: 108589. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.108589
Urza AK, Weisberg PJ, Dilts T (2020) Evidence of widespread topoclimatic limitation for lower treelines of the Intermountain West, United States. Ecol Appl 30(7): e02158. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2158
Wang JF, Zhang TL, Fu BJ (2016) A measure of spatial stratified heterogeneity. Ecol Indic 67: 250–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.02.052
Wang JF, Xu CD. (2017) Geodetector, principle and prospective. Acta Geogr Sin 72: 116–134. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.11821/dlxb201701010
Wang Q, Guo YL, Zhai Z (2017) The lower timberline dataset in the upper reaches of the Min River, China (1999–2009). Journal of Global Change Data & Discovery 1: 437–441. https://doi.org/10.3974/geodp.2017.04.09
Wang YF, Liang EY (2019) Research advances in disturbance and ecological processes of the treeline ecotone. Chinese Science Bulletin 64(16): 1711–1721. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.1360/N972018-01273
Wardle P (1968) Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii Engel.) at its upper limits on the Front Range, Colorado. Ecology 49(3): 483–495. https://doi.org/10.2307/1934115
Wei FY (2007) Modern Climatic Statistical Diagnosis and Prediction Technology. Meteorological Press, Beijing, China. (In Chinese)
Wilmking M, Harden J, Tape K (2006) Effect of tree line advance on carbon storage in NW Alaska. J Geophys Res Biogeosci 111(G2). https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JG000074
Wu XC, Pei TT, Li XY, et al. (2016) Tree growth responding to climate changes. Journal of Beijing Normal University (Natural Science) 52(1): 109–116. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.16360/j.cnki.jbnuns.2016.01.021
Xiang JY, Peng WF, Tao S (2022) Spatio-temporal changes of vegetation NDVI and its topographic response in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River from 2000 to 2020. Resources and Environment in the Yangtze Basin 31(7): 1534–1547. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.11870/cjlyzyyhj202207011
Xu F, Jia YW, Niu CW, et al. (2018) Variation character of annual, seasonal and monthly temperature and precipitation. Mountain Research 36(2): 171–183. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.16089/j.cnki.1008-2786.000313
Xu Y, Huang WT, Dou SQ, et al. (2022) Responding mechanism of vegetation cover to climate change and human activities in Southwest China from 2000 to 2020. Environmental Science 43(6): 3230–3240. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.13227/j.hjkx.202108107
Yang B, He M, Melvin TM, et al. (2013) Climate control on tree growth at the upper and lower treelines: a case study in the Qilian Mountains, Tibetan Plateau. PLoS One 8(7): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069065
Zhang HY, Zhan CS, Xia J, et al. (2022) Responses of vegetation to changes in terrestrial water storage and temperature in global mountainous regions. Sci Total Environ 851: 158416. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158416
Zhong XH (2006) Progress tendency and forward domains of mountain environment studies. J Mt Sci-Engl 24: 525–530. (In Chinese)
Zhai Z, Wang Q (2015) The geography distribution pattern and spatial move of the lower timberline in the upper reaches of Minjiang River. Geographical Research 34: 2105–2112. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.11821/dlyj201511009
Zhang RZ (1992) Arid Valleys in the Hengduan Mountains. Science Press, Beijing, China. pp 20–25. (In Chinese)
Zhu C, Peng WF, Zhang LF, et al. (2019) Study of temporal and spatial variation and driving force of fractional vegetation cover in upper reaches of Minjiang River from 2006 to 2016. Acta Ecol Sin 39(5): 1583–1594. (In Chinese) https://doi.org/10.5846/stxb201805040993
Acknowledgments
The research was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Southwest University of Science and Technology (18zx7117) and the National Science and Technology Support Program of China (2015BAC05B05-01).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
YAN Wei-po: Methodology, Data curation, Visualization, Writing-original draft, Writing-review & editing, Supervision. WANG Qing: Investigation, Conceptualization, Supervision. GUO Ya-lin: Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Supervision. HU Qi: Investigation, Visualization. YANG Min: Visualization. AN Yi-da: Investigation, Data curation.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yan, Wp., Wang, Q., Guo, Yl. et al. Indicator of climate variability: low treeline displacement in arid valleys of mountain areas, China. J. Mt. Sci. 20, 3250–3265 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-023-8392-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-023-8392-z