Unexpected westward range shifts in European forest plants link to nitrogen deposition

Climate change is commonly assumed to induce species' range shifts toward the poles. Yet, other environmental changes may affect the geographical distribution of species in unexpected ways. Here, we quantify multidecadal shifts in the distribution of European forest plants and link these shifts to key drivers of forest biodiversity change: climate change, atmospheric deposition (nitrogen and sulfur), and forest canopy dynamics. Surprisingly, westward distribution shifts were 2.6 times more likely than northward ones. Not climate change, but nitrogen-mediated colonization events, possibly facilitated by the recovery from past acidifying deposition, best explain westward movements. Biodiversity redistribution patterns appear complex and are more likely driven by the interplay among several environmental changes than due to the exclusive effects of climate change alone.

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Publication Details

Journal
Science
Published
2024-10-10
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ado0878
Citations
39
Primary Topic
Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
17.90

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article

Unexpected westward range shifts in European forest plants link to nitrogen deposition

Pieter De Frenne, Donald P. Waller, Tibor Standovár, Wolfgang Schmidt et al.
39 citations
Science
Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology
17.90
article

Unexpected westward range shifts in European forest plants link to nitrogen deposition

Pieter De Frenne, Donald P. Waller, Tibor Standovár, Wolfgang Schmidt, Dries Landuyt, Florian Zellweger, Martin Macek, Balázs Teleki, Ute Jandt, Pieter Sanczuk, Kris Verheyen, Bogdan Jaroszewicz, Jonas J. Lembrechts, Ondřej Vild, Frantíšek Máliš, Anne D. Bjorkman, Thomas Vanneste, Jörg Brunet, Kamila Reczyńska, Guillaume Decocq, Markus Bernhardt‐Römermann, Markéta Chudomelová, Thilo Heinken, Imre Berki, Thomas A. Nagel, Karen De Pauw, Michael P. Perring, Francisco Rodríguez‐Sánchez, Thomas Dirnböck, Emiel De Lombaerde, Petr Petřík, Martin Kopecký, Caroline Greiser, Jonathan Lenoir, Krzysztof Świerkosz, Radim Hédl, Pieter Vangansbeke, Ingmar R. Staude, Tomasz Durak, Tobias Naaf, Lander Baeten
article en
39 citations

Abstract

Climate change is commonly assumed to induce species' range shifts toward the poles. Yet, other environmental changes may affect the geographical distribution of species in unexpected ways. Here, we quantify multidecadal shifts in the distribution of European forest plants and link these shifts to key drivers of forest biodiversity change: climate change, atmospheric deposition (nitrogen and sulfur), and forest canopy dynamics. Surprisingly, westward distribution shifts were 2.6 times more likely than northward ones. Not climate change, but nitrogen-mediated colonization events, possibly facilitated by the recovery from past acidifying deposition, best explain westward movements. Biodiversity redistribution patterns appear complex and are more likely driven by the interplay among several environmental changes than due to the exclusive effects of climate change alone.

ScienceVol. 386(6718)
Eötvös Loránd University (HU), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Wisconsin System (US), University of Debrecen (HU), University of Wisconsin–Madison (US), University of Antwerp (BE), University of Ljubljana (SI), Stockholm University (SE), University of Potsdam (DE), The University of Western Australia (AU), Utrecht University (NL), Research Institute for Nature and Forest (BE), Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZ), University of Wrocław (PL), Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (CH), German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (DE), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SE), UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (GB), Institute of Botany of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Technická univerzita vo Zvolene (SK), Environment Agency Austria (AT), Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (DE), Wrocław Zoo (PL), Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés (FR), Institute of Zoology (KZ), National Forest Centre (SK), Białowieża National Park (PL), Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Botany (CZ), Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (DE), Palacký University Olomouc (CZ), University of Göttingen (DE), Friedrich Schiller University Jena (DE), Universidad de Sevilla (ES), University of Sopron (HU), University of Gothenburg (SE), Leipzig University (DE), University of Rzeszów (PL)
European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung Halle-Jena-Leipzig
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology
17.90
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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