Sensitivity and response of northern hemisphere altitudinal and polar treelines to environmental change at landscape and local scales

ABSTRACT The sensitivity and response of northern hemisphere altitudinal and polar treelines to environmental change are increasingly discussed in terms of climate change, often forgetting that climate is only one aspect of environmental variation. As treeline heterogeneity increases from global to regional and smaller scales, assessment of treeline sensitivity at the landscape and local scales requires a more complex approach than at the global scale. The time scale (short‐, medium‐, long‐term) also plays an important role when considering treeline sensitivity. The sensitivity of the treeline to a changing environment varies among different types of treeline. Treelines controlled mainly by orographic…

• UO
  University of St Andrews
• EC
  European Commission
• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft