High Species Turnover and Decreasing Plant Species Richness on Mountain Summits in Sweden: Reindeer Grazing Overrides Climate Change

Figures & data

FIGURE 1 Map of the study area with the location of the visited summits. The dashed line is the border between Norway and Sweden. The center of the area lies at 63°03′N, 12°29′E.

TABLE 1 Data on the nine summits included in this study.

FIGURE 2 The number of species found on the summits. (Top) The total number of species. (Bottom) The number of species established and locally extinct on the summits since Kilander (1955).

FIGURE 3 Altitudinal change of all species on Mount Stora Helagsstöten above 1000 m a.s.l. compared to Kilander (1955). Species identities can be found in Appendix 2.

FIGURE 4 Climate trends in the study area, with fitted regression lines. (Top) Mean summer temperatures (June–August). Regression: y  =  0.014x + 9.53, R²  =  0.10. (Bottom) Annual precipitation. Regression: y  =  2.18x + 896.4, R²  =  0.12. The data are a composite from the climate stations Storlien and Storlien-Visjövalen (see Material and methods for details).

FIGURE 5 The number of reindeer in the county of Jämtland, Sweden. The number is expressed as winter herd sizes. Summer herd sizes also includes calves and other animals harvested in the autumn.

Highest distribution according to Kilander (1955), and observed highest distribution in 2002 in parentheses for each species on all the studied mountains. An X means that the species was present but no altitude was recorded.

Species found on Mount Stora Helagsstöten. The list is sorted after the difference in altitude between Kilander (1955) and our study. Rank order refers to Figure 3.

Kilander, S. 1955. Kärlväxters övre gränser på fjäll i sydvästra Jämtland samt angränsande delar av Härjedalen och Norge [Upper limits of vascular plants on mountains in southwestern Jämtland and adjacent parts of Härjedalen and Norway; in Swedish]. Acta Phytogeographica Suecica 35.

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