Advance of Norway spruce (Picea abies) onto mafic Lommoltunturi fell in Finnish Lapland during the last 200 years

摘要

of the spatial variability of the snowpack and zonal-pattern soil-nutrient regimes is poorly understood. Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst) is best suited to fertile soils, and hence we applied soil physical-chemical and snow measurements and the age chronology of Norway spruce along an elevational gradient (380–557 m a.s.l.) to address a vertical soil zonality hypothesis on mafic Lommoltunturi fell in Finnish Lapland. With regard to increasing elevation, we found an increase in soil NTOT, CTOT and Al, but a decrease in soil Ca, Mg and Ca:Al ratio as well as in electrical conductivity (EC). In addition, the snowpack was significantly thicker in low-elevation forest than in the tree line and open tundra. In the 1840s, spruce established on low-elevation soils with a Ca:Al ratio of 2.2. Starting from the 1920s a significant shift of spruce occurred such that it took 60 years to expand the tree line by 55 m in elevation. The spruce tree line has advanced, and the age distribution indicates new colonization of spruce in closed forest up to tundra. The poor soil Ca:Al ratio of 0.02 on tundra apparently is a constraint for spruce. Spruce forest is young (<165 years), and hence we argue that spruce has expanded onto formerly tree-free sites of this mafic fell. This paper demonstrates that vertical soil zonality is a potential driver for the diffuse tree line of Picea abies on mafic Fennoscandian fells.