Impacts of climate change on vegetation distribution. No. 1: Climate change induced vegetation shifts in the palearctic regionud

摘要

Global average temperature has increased and precipitation pattern has altered over the pastud100 years due to increases in greenhouse gases. These changes will alter numerous site factors andudbiochemical processes of vegetative communities such as nutrient and water availability, permafrostudthawing, fire regime, biotic interactions and invasion. As a consequence, climate change is expected toudalter distribution ranges of many species and communities as well as boundaries of biomes. Shifting ofudspecies and vegetation zones northwards and upwards in elevation has already been observed. Besides,udseveral experiments have been conducted and simulations have been run all over the world in order toudpredict possible range shifts and ecological risks. In this paper, we review literature available in Web ofudScience on Europe and boreal Eurasia and give an overview of observed and predicted changes inudvegetation in these regions. The main trends include advance of the tree line, reduction of the alpineudvegetation belt, drought risk, forest diebacks, a shift from coniferous forests to deciduous forests andudinvasion. It is still controversial if species migration will be able to keep pace with climate change.