Warming and shrub encroachment decrease decomposition in arid alpine and subalpine ecosystems

References

• Adair, E. C., S. E. Hobbie, and R. K. Hobbie. 2010. Single-pool exponential decomposition models: Potential pitfalls in their use in ecological studies. Ecology 91 (4):1–10.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Aerts, R. 2006. The freezer defrosting: Global warming and litter decomposition rates in cold biomes. Journal of Ecology 94:713–24.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Aerts, R., J. H. C. Cornelissen, and E. Dorrepaal. 2006. Plant performance in a warmer world: General responses of plants from cold, northern biomes and the importance of winter and spring events. Plant Ecology 182:65–77.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Allison, S. D., and K. K. Treseder. 2008. Warming and drying suppress microbial activity and carbon cycling in boreal forest soils. Global Change Biology 14:2898–909.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Arft, A. M., M. D. Walker, J. Gurevitch, J. M. Alatalo, M. S. Bret-Harte, M. Dale, M. Diemer, F. Gugerli, G. H. R. Henry, M. H. Jones, et al. 1999. Responses of tundra plants to experimental warming: Meta-analysis of the international tundra experiment. Ecological Monographs 69 (4):491–511.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Austin, A. T., and L. Vivanco. 2006. Plant litter decomposition in a semi-arid ecosystem controlled by photodegradation. Nature 442 (3):555–58.
   Google Scholar
• Bowman, W. D., H. Steltzer, T. N. Rosenstiel, C. C. Cleveland, and C. L. Meier. 2004. Litter effects of two co-occurring alpine species on plant growth, microbial activity and immobilization of nitrogen. Oikos 104 (2):336–344.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Bryant, D. M., E. A. Holland, T. R. Seastedt, and M. D. Walker. 1998. Analysis of litter decomposition in an alpine tundra. Canadian Journal of Botany 76:1295–304.
   Google Scholar
• Bunnell, F. L., D. E. N. Tait, P. W. Flanagan, and K. van Clever. 1977. Microbial respiration and substrate weight loss-I. A general model of the influences of abiotic variables. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 9 (1):33–40.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Collins, C. G., C. J. Carey, E. L. Aronson, C. W. Kopp, J. M. Diez, and A. Austin. 2016. Direct and indirect effects of native range expansion on soil microbial community structure and function. Journal of Ecology 104:1271–83.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Cornelissen, J. H. C., P. M. van Bodegom, R. Aerts, T. V. Callaghan, R. S. P. van Logtestijn, J. Alatalo, F. Stuart Chapin, R. Gerdol, J. Gudmundsson, D. Gwynn-Jones, et al. 2007. Global negative vegetation feedback to climate warming responses of leaf litter decomposition rates in cold biomes. Ecology Letters 10:619–27.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Coûteaux, M. M., P. Bottner, and B. Berg. 1995. Litter decomposition, climate and litter quality. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 10 (2):63–66.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Davidson, E. A. J. E. A., I. A. Janssens, D. Marks, M. M. D. Murdock, R. S. Ahl, S. W. Woods, H. R. Zuuring, A. C. Balisky, P. J. Burton, R. D. Bardgett, et al. 2006. Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition and feedbacks to climate change. Nature 440 (7081):165–73.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• DeMarco, J., M. C. Mack, and M. S. Bret-Harte. 2011. The effects of snow, soil microenvironment, and soil organic matter quality on N availability in three Alaskan arctic plant communities. Ecosystems 14 (5):804–17.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• DeMarco, J., M. C. Mack, and M. S. Bret-Harte. 2014. Effects of arctic shrub expansion on biophysical vs. biogeochemical drivers of litter decomposition. Ecology 95 (7):1861–75.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Doak, D. F., and W. F. Morris. 2010. Demographic compensation and tipping points in climate-induced range shifts. Nature 467 (7318):959–62.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Doane, T. A., and W. R. Horwáth. 2003. Spectrophotometric determination of nitrate with a single reagent. Analytical Letters 36 (12):2713–22.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Dorrepaal, E., R. Aerts, J. H. C. Cornelissen, T. V. Callaghan, and R. S. P. van Logtestijn. 2003. Summer warming and increased winter snow cover affect Sphagnum fuscum growth, structure and production in a sub-arctic bog. Global Change Biology 10:93–104.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Essery, R., and J. Pomeroy. 2004. Vegetation and topographic control of wind-blown snow distributions in distributed and aggregated simulations for an arctic tundra basin. Journal of Hydrometeorology 5 (5):735–44.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Fischer, E. M., U. Beyerle, and R. Knutti. 2013. Robust spatially aggregated projections of climate extremes. Nature Climate Change 3 (12):1033–38.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Fisk, M. C., S. K. Schmidt, and T. R. Seastedt. 1998. Topographic patterns of above- and belowground production and nitrogen cycling in alpine tundra. Ecology 79 (7):2253–66.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Fox, J., and S. Weisberg. 2011. An R companion to applied regression. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
   Google Scholar
• Gavazov, K. S. 2010. Dynamics of alpine plant litter decomposition in a changing climate. Plant and Soil 337 (1):19–32.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Giblin, A. E., J. A. Laundre, K. J. Nadelhoffer, and G. R. Shaver. 1994. Measuring nutrient availability in arctic soils using ion exchange resins: a field test. Soil Science Society of America Journal 58 (4):1154–1162.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Gorham, E. 1991. Northern peatlands: Role in the carbon cycle and probable responses to climatic warming. Ecological Applications 1 (2):182–95.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Gottfried, M., H. Pauli, K. Reiter, and G. Grabherr. 1999. A fine-scaled predictive model for changes in species distribution patterns of high mountain plants induced by climate. Diversity and Distributions 5 (6):241–51.
   Google Scholar
• Grogan, P., L. Illeris, A. Michelsen, and S. Jonasson. 2001. Respiration of recently-fixed plant carbon dominates mid-winter ecosystem CO2 production in sub-arctic heath tundra. Climatic Change 50:129–42.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Hall, C. 1991. Natural history of the White-Inyo Range, eastern California. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
   Google Scholar
• Henry, H. A. L., K. Brizgys, and C. B. Field. 2008. Litter decomposition in a California annual grassland: Interactions between photodegradation and litter layer thickness. Ecosystems 11 (4):545–54.
   Google Scholar
• IPCC. 2007. Working group I contribution to the IPCC fourth assessment report. Climate change 2007: The physical science basis. New York: Cambridge University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Klanderud, K., and H. J. B. Birks. 2003. Recent increases in species richness and shifts in altitudinal distributions of Norwegian mountain plants. The Holocene 13 (1):1–6.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kopp, C. W., and E. E. Cleland. 2014. Shifts in plant species elevational range limits and abundances observed over nearly five decades in a western North America mountain range. Journal of Vegetation Science 25 (1):135–46.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kuiters, A. T. 1990. Role of phenolic substances from decomposing forest litter in plant-soil interactions. Acta Botanica Neerlandica 39 (4):329–48.
   Google Scholar
• Lenth, R. V. 2016. Least-squares means : The R package lsmeans. Journal of Statistical Software 69 (1):1–33.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Liston, G. E., J. P. Mcfadden, M. Sturm, and R. A. Pielke. 2002. Modelled changes in arctic tundra snow, energy and moisture fluxes due to increased shrubs. Global Change Biology 8 (1):17–32.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Mack, M. C., E. A. G. Schuur, M. S. Bret-Harte, G. R. Shaver, and F. S. Chapin. 2004. Ecosystem carbon storage in arctic tundra reduced by long-term nutrient fertilization. Nature 431 (7007):440–43.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Margulis, S. A., G. Cortés, M. Girotto, L. S. Huning, D. Li, and M. Durand. 2016. Characterizing the extreme 2015 snowpack deficit in the Sierra Nevada (USA) and the implications for drought recovery. Geophysical Research Letters 43 (12):6341–49.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Marion, G. M., G. H. R. Henry, D. W. Freckman, J. Johnstone, G. Jones, M. H. Jones, E. Lévesque, U. Molau, P. Mølgaard, A. N. Parsons, et al. 1997. Open-top designs for manipulating field temperature in high-latitude ecosystems. Global Change Biology 3 (S1):20–32.
   Google Scholar
• McGill, W. B., and C. V. Cole. 1981. Comparative aspects of cycling of organic C, N, S and P through soil organic matter. Geoderma 26:267–86.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• McLaren, J. R., K. M. Buckeridge, M. J. van de Weg, G. R. Shaver, J. P. Schimel, and L. Gough. 2017. Shrub encroachment in arctic tundra: Betula nana effects on above- and belowground litter decomposition. Ecology 98 (5):1361–76.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Molau, U., and P. Mølgaard. 1996. International tundra experiment (ITEX) manual. Copenhagen, Denmark: Danish Polar Center.
   Google Scholar
• Mooney, H., G. Andre, and R. Wright. 1962. Alpine and subalpine vegetation patterns in the White Mountains of California. American Midland Naturalist 68 (2):257–273.
   Google Scholar
• Mooney, H. A., J. Canadell, F. S. Chapin III, J. R. Ehleringer, C. Korner, R. E. Mcmurtrie, W. J. Parton, L. F. Pitelka, and E.-D. Schulze. 1999. Ecosystem physiology responses to global change. In The terrestrial biosphere and global change: Implications for natural and managed ecosystems, eds. B. H. Walker, W. Steffen, J. Canadell, and J. Ingram, 141–89. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Myers-Smith, I. H., B. C. Forbes, M. Wilmking, M. Hallinger, T. Lantz, D. Blok, K. D. Tape, M. MacIas-Fauria, U. Sass-Klaassen, E. Lévesque, et al. 2011. Shrub expansion in tundra ecosystems: Dynamics, impacts and research priorities. Environmental Research Letters 6:045509.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Myers-Smith, I. H., and D. S. Hik. 2013. Shrub canopies influence soil temperatures but not nutrient dynamics: An experimental test of tundra snow-shrub interactions. Ecology and Evolution 3 (11):3683–700.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Nogués-Bravo, D., M. B. Araújo, M. P. Errea, and J. P. Martínez-Rica. 2007. Exposure of global mountain systems to climate warming during the 21st century. Global Environmental Change 17 (3–4):420–28.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• O’Lear, H. A., and T. R. Seastedt. 1994. Landscape patterns of litter decomposition in alpine tundra. Oecologia 99 (1):95–101.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Parida, B. R., and W. Beurmann. 2014. Increasing summer drying in North American ecosystems in response to longer nonfrozen periods. Geophysical Research Letters 41 (8):2851–57.
   Google Scholar
• Pomeroy, J. W., D. S. Bewley, R. L. H. Essery, N. R. Hedstrom, T. Link, R. J. Granger, J. E. Sicart, C. R. Ellis, and J. R. Janowicz. 2006. Shrub tundra snowmelt. Hydrological Processes 20 (4):923–41.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• PRISM Climate Group. 2018. PRISM climate group. Accesses. http://www.prism.oregonstate.edu/.
   Google Scholar
• R Development Core Team. 2017. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Vienna, Austria.
   Google Scholar
• Rundel, P. W., A. C. Gibson, and M. R. Sharifi. 2005. Plant functional groups in alpine fellfield habitats of the White Mountains, California. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 37 (3):358–65.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Schimel, J. P., C. Bilbrough, and J. M. Welker. 2004. Increased snow depth affects microbial activity and nitrogen mineralization in two arctic tundra communities. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 36 (2):217–27.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Schuur, E. A. G., J. G. Vogel, K. G. Crummer, H. Lee, J. O. Sickman, and T. E. Osterkamp. 2009. The effect of permafrost thaw on old carbon release and net carbon exchange from tundra. Nature 459 (7246):556–59.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Seastedt, T. R., and G. A. Adams. 2001. Effects of mobile tree islands on alpine tundra soils. Ecology 82 (1):8–17.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Seastedt, T. R., M. D. Walker, and D. M. Bryant. 2001. Controls on decomposition processes in the alpine tundra. In Structure and function of an alpine ecosystem: Niwot Ridge, Colorado, eds. W. D. Bowman, and T. R. Seastedt, 222–36. New York: Oxford University Press.
   Google Scholar
• Shaw, R., and J. Harte. 2001. Control of litter decomposition in a subalpine meadow-sagebrush steppe ecotone under climate change. Ecological Applications 11 (4):1206–23.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sturm, M., J. P. Mcfadden, G. E. Liston, F. S. Chapin III, C. Racine, and J. Holmgreen. 2000. Snow-shrub interactions in arctic tundra: A hypothesis with climatic implications. Journal of Climate 14:336–44.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sturm, M., J. Schimel, G. Michaelson, J. M. Welker, S. F. Oberbauer, G. E. Liston, and J. Fahnestock. 2005. Winter biological processes could help convert arctic tundra to shrubland. BioScience 55 (1):17–26.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Swift, M. J., O. W. Heal, and J. M. Anderson. 1979. Decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. 5th ed. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.
   Google Scholar
• Turi, C. E., P. R. Shipley, and S. J. Murch. 2014. North American Artemisia species from the subgenus Tridentatae (Sagebrush): A phytochemical, botanical and pharmacological review. Phytochemistry 98:9–26.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Väisänen, M., H. Ylänne, E. Kaarlejärvi, S. Sjögersten, J. Olofsson, N. Crout, and S. Stark. 2014. Consequences of warming on tundra carbon balance determined by reindeer grazing history. Nature Climate Change 4 (5):384–88.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Vitousek, P. M., and L. R. Walker. 1989. Biological invasion by Myrica faya in Hawai’i: Plant demography, nitrogen fixation, ecosystem effects. Ecological Monographs 59 (3):247–65.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Webb, E. E., E. A. G. Schuur, S. M. Natali, K. L. Oken, R. Bracho, J. P. Krapek, D. Risk, and N. R. Nickerson. 2016. Increased wintertime CO2 loss as a result of sustained tundra warming. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 121:249–65.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Webber, P. J., J. C. Emerick, D. C. Ebert May, and V. Komarkova. 1976. The impact of increased snowfall on alpine vegetation. In Ecological impacts of snowpack augmentation in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado. Final Report of the San Juan Ecology Project, eds.Steinhoff, H. W. and Ives, J. D. Prepared for the Division of Atmospheric Water Resources Management, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of Interior, Denver, Colorado, by Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. Report No. CSU-FNR-7052-1, Contract No. 14-06-D-7052, 201–64.
   Google Scholar
• Welker, J. M., J. T. Fahnestock, G. H. R. Henry, K. W. O’Dea, and R. A. Chimner. 2004. CO2 exchange in three Canadian High Arctic ecosystems: Response to long-term experimental warming. Global Change Biology 10 (12):1981–95.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Wetherald, R. T. 2010. Changes of time mean state and variability of hydrology in response to a doubling and quadrupling of CO2. Climatic Change 102 (3):651–70.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Withington, C. L., and R. L. Sanford. 2007. Decomposition rates of buried substrates increase with altitude in the forest-alpine tundra ecotone. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 39 (1):68–75.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Wookey, P. A., R. Aerts, R. D. Bardgett, F. Baptist, K. Bråthen, J. H. C. Cornelissen, L. Gough, I. P. Hartley, D. W. Hopkins, S. Lavorel, et al. 2009. Ecosystem feedbacks and cascade processes: Understanding their role in the responses of Arctic and alpine ecosystems to environmental change. Global Change Biology 15 (5):1153–72.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Zhang, B., S. Chen, X. He, W. Liu, Q. Zhao, L. Zhao, and C. Tian. 2014. Responses of soil microbial communities to experimental warming in alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. PLoS One 9 (8):e103859.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar