Effects of Warming, Nitrogen and Grazing on Plant Functional Traits Differ Between Alpine and Sub‐Alpine Grasslands

ABSTRACT Questions Alpine grasslands are affected by a range of global change drivers, including land‐use change, climate warming and pollution. How these drivers interact and affect plant functional communities is poorly understood. We used plant functional traits to test the single and interactive effects of warming, nitrogen addition and grazing on alpine grassland communities and assessed the importance of intraspecific trait variation. Location Alpine and sub‐alpine grasslands in western Norway. Methods For three years, we applied global change treatments to test the effects of warming with nitrogen addition, and warming with grazing at an alpine and sub‐alpine plant community. We measured six plant functional traits related to plant size and leaf economics, including intraspecific trait variation. Results Our results show that warming and nitrogen addition shifted size‐related traits in plant communities towards taller plants with larger leaves, and more strongly in the alpine than in the sub‐alpine plant community. Warming also affected leaf economic traits, promoting faster traits in the alpine and slower traits in the sub‐alpine plant community. Grazing shifted communities to faster leaves (grazing tolerant ) in the sub‐alpine community and slower leaves (grazing avoidance ) in the alpine community. There were no interactive effects between the global change drivers. The relative contributions of species turnover and intraspecific trait variation to overall trait variation differed between origins of the two plant communities. Conclusions We show that these global change drivers shift alpine and sub‐alpine plant communities in different directions, likely due to differences in resource availability. Our results support the need for site‐specific management strategies in these systems.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Vegetation Science
Published
2025-09-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.70061
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.31
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article

Effects of Warming, Nitrogen and Grazing on Plant Functional Traits Differ Between Alpine and Sub‐Alpine Grasslands

Sam J. Ahler, Courtenay A. Ray, Josef C. Garen, Aud H. Halbritter et al.
1 citations
Journal of Vegetation Science
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
2.31
article

Effects of Warming, Nitrogen and Grazing on Plant Functional Traits Differ Between Alpine and Sub‐Alpine Grasslands

Sam J. Ahler, Courtenay A. Ray, Josef C. Garen, Aud H. Halbritter, Richard J. Telford, Dickson Gerald Mauki, Hilary Rose Dawson, Brian Joseph Enquist, Marta Correia, Kai Lepley, Vigdis Vandvik, Marta Baumane, Jonathan von Oppen, Julia N. Eckberg, Celesté Maré, Joshua Erkelenz, Sonya R. Geange, Emil Alexander Sherman Andersen, Brian Maitner, Joe Atkinson, Sean T. Michaletz, Alexander Elsy, Meghan T. Hayden, Bernard Olivier, Mukhlish Jamal Musa Holle, Pia M. Bradler, Coşkun Güçlü, Susan E. Eshelman, Cora Ena Löwenstein, Julia Chacon Labella
article en
1 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Questions Alpine grasslands are affected by a range of global change drivers, including land‐use change, climate warming and pollution. How these drivers interact and affect plant functional communities is poorly understood. We used plant functional traits to test the single and interactive effects of warming, nitrogen addition and grazing on alpine grassland communities and assessed the importance of intraspecific trait variation. Location Alpine and sub‐alpine grasslands in western Norway. Methods For three years, we applied global change treatments to test the effects of warming with nitrogen addition, and warming with grazing at an alpine and sub‐alpine plant community. We measured six plant functional traits related to plant size and leaf economics, including intraspecific trait variation. Results Our results show that warming and nitrogen addition shifted size‐related traits in plant communities towards taller plants with larger leaves, and more strongly in the alpine than in the sub‐alpine plant community. Warming also affected leaf economic traits, promoting faster traits in the alpine and slower traits in the sub‐alpine plant community. Grazing shifted communities to faster leaves (grazing tolerant ) in the sub‐alpine community and slower leaves (grazing avoidance ) in the alpine community. There were no interactive effects between the global change drivers. The relative contributions of species turnover and intraspecific trait variation to overall trait variation differed between origins of the two plant communities. Conclusions We show that these global change drivers shift alpine and sub‐alpine plant communities in different directions, likely due to differences in resource availability. Our results support the need for site‐specific management strategies in these systems.

Journal of Vegetation ScienceVol. 36(5)
Leuphana University of Lüneburg (DE), Australian National University (AU), University of Copenhagen (DK), University of Wyoming (US), University of Arizona (US), University of British Columbia (CA), Universitas Gadjah Mada (ID), Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (GB), University of Oregon (US), University of Basel (CH), University of Colorado Boulder (US), Aarhus University (DK), Masaryk University (CZ), University of Michigan (US), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (GB), Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (NO), The University of Dodoma (TZ), UNSW Sydney (AU), ETH Zurich (CH), University of Oxford (GB), Education University of Hong Kong (HK), Institute of Forest Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (DE), Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (ES), University of Bergen (NO), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (ES), University of South Florida St. Petersburg (US), University of Coimbra (PT), Technische Universität Dresden (DE), University of Hong Kong (HK), Umeå University (SE), BOKU University (AT), University of Edinburgh (GB)
Openalex Percentile: Top 11%
Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
2.31
DOISourceOpenAlex
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