Think globally, measure locally: The MIREN standardized protocol for monitoring plant species distributions along elevation gradients

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

  • Jonas J. Lembrechts
  • Keith McDougall
  • Aníbal Pauchard
  • Jake M. Alexander
  • Agustina Barros
  • Lohengrin A. Cavieres
  • Irfan Rashid
  • Lisa J. Rew
  • Alla Aleksanyan
  • José R. Arévalo
  • Valeria Aschero
  • Chelsea Chisholm
  • V. Ralph Clark
  • Jan Clavel
  • Curtis Daehler
  • Pervaiz A. Dar
  • Hansjörg Dietz
  • Romina D. Dimarco
  • Peter Edwards
  • Franz Essl
  • Eduardo Fuentes-Lillo
  • Antoine Guisan
  • Onalenna Gwate
  • Anna L. Hargreaves
  • Gabi Jakobs
  • Alejandra Jiménez
  • Paul Kardol
  • Christoph Kueffer
  • Christian Larson
  • Jonathan Lenoir
  • Bernd Lenzner
  • Miguel A. Padrón Mederos
  • Maritza Mihoc
  • Ann Milbau
  • John W. Morgan
  • Jana Müllerová
  • Bridgett J. Naylor
  • Ivan Nijs
  • Martin A. Nuñez
  • Rüdiger Otto
  • Niels Preuk
  • Amanda Ratier Backes
  • Zafar A. Reshi
  • Sabine B. Rumpf
  • Verónica Sandoya
  • Mellesa Schroder
  • Karina L. Speziale
  • Davnah Urbach
  • Graciela Valencia
  • Vigdis Vandvik
  • Michaela Vitková
  • Tom Vorstenbosch
  • Tom W.N. Walker
  • Neville Walsh
  • Genevieve Wright
  • Shengwei Zong
  • Tim Seipel
Climate change and other global change drivers threaten plant diversity in mountains worldwide. A widely documented response to such environmental modifications is for plant species to change their elevational ranges. Range shifts are often idiosyncratic and difficult to generalize, partly due to variation in sampling methods. There is thus a need for a standardized monitoring strategy that can be applied across mountain regions to assess distribution changes and community turnover of native and non-native plant species over space and time. Here, we present a conceptually intuitive and standardized protocol developed by the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN) to systematically quantify global patterns of native and non-native species distributions along elevation gradients and shifts arising from interactive effects of climate change and human disturbance. Usually repeated every five years, surveys consist of 20 sample sites located at equal elevation increments along three replicate roads per sampling region. At each site, three plots extend from the side of a mountain road into surrounding natural vegetation. The protocol has been successfully used in 18 regions worldwide from 2007 to present. Analyses of one point in time already generated some salient results, and revealed region-specific elevational patterns of native plant species richness, but a globally consistent elevational decline in non-native species richness. Non-native plants were also more abundant directly adjacent to road edges, suggesting that disturbed roadsides serve as a vector for invasions into mountains. From the upcoming analyses of time series, even more exciting results can be expected, especially about range shifts. Implementing the protocol in more mountain regions globally would help to generate a more complete picture of how global change alters species distributions. This would inform conservation policy in mountain ecosystems, where some conservation policies remain poorly implemented.
OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummere8590
ZeitschriftEcology and Evolution
Jahrgang12
Ausgabenummer2
Anzahl der Seiten17
ISSN2045-7758
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 14.02.2022
Extern publiziertJa

Bibliographische Notiz

Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge the immense effort and time that numerous professionals, field assistants, and students have contributed to the collection of these data. SH and ARB gratefully acknowledge the support of iDiv funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG–FZT 118, 202548816). JJL received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO, grant nr. 12P1819N). The work from JJL, JC, and IN is supported by a research grant from the FWO (grant nr. G018919N). Fieldwork in the Northern Scandes is achieved using INTERACT Transnational Access funding. LAC and AP acknowledge support from FONDECYT 1171005, 1180205, CONICYT PIA CCTE AFB170008 and Grant ANID PIA/BASAL FB210006. JMA received funding from the European Commission Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 678841. VA was supported by the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (SIIP 2019 UNCUYO). FE, BL, and TV acknowledge funding by the Austrian Science Foundation FWF (grant I 3757-B29). OG received a postdoctoral research fellowship through the Afromontane Research Unit, University of the Free State. PK acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskåpsrådet) (project grant 2015-04214) and the Swedish Research Council Formas (project grant 2020-02348). BN was supported by the US Forest Service and direct mentorship from C. Parks. VS was supported by SENESCYT-Ecuador, Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad (IEB) and Laboratorio de Ecología, Biogeografía y Sistemática (ECOBIOSIS) de la Universidad de Concepción, Laboratorio de Invasiones Biológicas (LIB) de la Universidad de Concepción, Herbario QCA and QCNE-Ecuador, Missouri Botanical Garden, and CONICYT (PFB-023). KLS thanks funding received from ANPCYT: PICT 1623/2018 and CONICET: PIP 0758/2014. MV was supported by a research grant from the BiodivClim Call 2019 (grant nr. TACR SS70010001) and together with JM by long-term research development project RVO 67985939 from the Czech Academy of Sciences. We also thank the Fondation Herbette, University of Lausanne, for financial support to JMA for the workshop “Distributed ecological observatories and long-term monitoring of mountain biodiversity” held in September 2019 that lead up to this paper. Finally, we are grateful to the editor and two anonymous reviewers for providing helpful comments to improve the manuscript. Open Access funding enabled and organized by ProjektDEAL.

Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge the immense effort and time that numerous professionals, field assistants, and students have contributed to the collection of these data. SH and ARB gratefully acknowledge the support of iDiv funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG–FZT 118, 202548816). JJL received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO, grant nr. 12P1819N). The work from JJL, JC, and IN is supported by a research grant from the FWO (grant nr. G018919N). Fieldwork in the Northern Scandes is achieved using INTERACT Transnational Access funding. LAC and AP acknowledge support from FONDECYT 1171005, 1180205, CONICYT PIA CCTE AFB170008 and Grant ANID PIA/BASAL FB210006. JMA received funding from the European Commission Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 678841. VA was supported by the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (SIIP 2019 UNCUYO). FE, BL, and TV acknowledge funding by the Austrian Science Foundation FWF (grant I 3757‐B29). OG received a postdoctoral research fellowship through the Afromontane Research Unit, University of the Free State. PK acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskåpsrådet) (project grant 2015‐04214) and the Swedish Research Council Formas (project grant 2020‐02348). BN was supported by the US Forest Service and direct mentorship from C. Parks. VS was supported by SENESCYT‐Ecuador, Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad (IEB) and Laboratorio de Ecología, Biogeografía y Sistemática (ECOBIOSIS) de la Universidad de Concepción, Laboratorio de Invasiones Biológicas (LIB) de la Universidad de Concepción, Herbario QCA and QCNE‐Ecuador, Missouri Botanical Garden, and CONICYT (PFB‐023). KLS thanks funding received from ANPCYT: PICT 1623/2018 and CONICET: PIP 0758/2014. MV was supported by a research grant from the BiodivClim Call 2019 (grant nr. TACR SS70010001) and together with JM by long‐term research development project RVO 67985939 from the Czech Academy of Sciences. We also thank the Fondation Herbette, University of Lausanne, for financial support to JMA for the workshop “Distributed ecological observatories and long‐term monitoring of mountain biodiversity” held in September 2019 that lead up to this paper. Finally, we are grateful to the editor and two anonymous reviewers for providing helpful comments to improve the manuscript. Open Access funding enabled and organized by ProjektDEAL.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

    Fachgebiete

  • Biologie - climate change, invasive species, long-term ecological monitoring, MIREN, mountain biodiversity, Mountain Invasion Research Network, range dynamics, range expansions

DOI