As an important ecotone,the alpine timberline is the boundary between closed-canopy montane forest and alpine vegetation,and is highly sensitive to global and regional climate changes.We provided a way to identify and...As an important ecotone,the alpine timberline is the boundary between closed-canopy montane forest and alpine vegetation,and is highly sensitive to global and regional climate changes.We provided a way to identify and extract the alpine timberline in Yarlung Zangpo Grand Canyon Nature Reserve by using remote sensing data and spatial analysis based on land use/land cover classification and NDVI distribution characteristics.Combining DEM data,the influence of slope and aspect on the distribution of alpine timberline was explored.The results showed that the alpine timberline in Yarlung Zangpo Grand Canyon is transitional timberline,with the upper boundary approximately distributed at the elevation of 3422-4373 m,the lower boundary at approximately 3270-4164 m,with a width of about 110-280 m.Alpine timberline was mainly distributed on steep and very steep slopes ranging from 25°to 45°.The maximum elevation of both the upper and lower boundaries occurred on steep slopes.The distribution of alpine timberline varies with aspects,with sunny slopes having a higher boundary than shady slopes.展开更多
Landscape boundaries are always indicated by the vegetation boundaries. As an ecotone between closed forest and treeline, alpine timberline may respond to global climate changes sensitively. The stability of timberlin...Landscape boundaries are always indicated by the vegetation boundaries. As an ecotone between closed forest and treeline, alpine timberline may respond to global climate changes sensitively. The stability of timberline and treeline depend not only on climate change, but also on the interaction of both sides of the ecosystems. Three natural boundaries existing in the timberline transitional zone are recognized: (1) timberline (upper limit of closed forest zone); (2) treeline (upper limit of tree islands zone); (3) tree species line (upper limit of individual tree growth). Paleobotanical and sedimentary evidences suggest that there were several times of climate fluctuation during the Holocene period in this area. The timberline of Taibai Mountain must have moved for four times on the millennium scale. Being a stochastic oscillation boundary, treeline appears in a semi stable condition on the century scale. The tree species line is even more unstable, which appears in an unstable status on the decades scale. The comparison of the stability within several landscape boundaries, shed light on the sensibility of these communities to various perturbation and environmental heterogeneity, i.e., herb community is the most sensitive one, which is followed by shrubs, and forest is the most stable one. Trees and shrubs can adapt to rocky and poor soils. On the contrary, alpine herbs are able to adapt to wetter and cooler soils. Finally, under a scenario of a temperature of 1.5 4.5℃ increase, the present timberline will be relatively stable but treeline and tree species line will move upward.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.91647212)IWHR Research&Development Support Program(WE0163A052018)the Open Research Fund of Guangxi Key Laboratory of Water Engineering Materials and Structures,Guangxi Institute of Water Resources Research(Grant No.GXHRI-WEMS-2020-13)。
文摘As an important ecotone,the alpine timberline is the boundary between closed-canopy montane forest and alpine vegetation,and is highly sensitive to global and regional climate changes.We provided a way to identify and extract the alpine timberline in Yarlung Zangpo Grand Canyon Nature Reserve by using remote sensing data and spatial analysis based on land use/land cover classification and NDVI distribution characteristics.Combining DEM data,the influence of slope and aspect on the distribution of alpine timberline was explored.The results showed that the alpine timberline in Yarlung Zangpo Grand Canyon is transitional timberline,with the upper boundary approximately distributed at the elevation of 3422-4373 m,the lower boundary at approximately 3270-4164 m,with a width of about 110-280 m.Alpine timberline was mainly distributed on steep and very steep slopes ranging from 25°to 45°.The maximum elevation of both the upper and lower boundaries occurred on steep slopes.The distribution of alpine timberline varies with aspects,with sunny slopes having a higher boundary than shady slopes.
文摘Landscape boundaries are always indicated by the vegetation boundaries. As an ecotone between closed forest and treeline, alpine timberline may respond to global climate changes sensitively. The stability of timberline and treeline depend not only on climate change, but also on the interaction of both sides of the ecosystems. Three natural boundaries existing in the timberline transitional zone are recognized: (1) timberline (upper limit of closed forest zone); (2) treeline (upper limit of tree islands zone); (3) tree species line (upper limit of individual tree growth). Paleobotanical and sedimentary evidences suggest that there were several times of climate fluctuation during the Holocene period in this area. The timberline of Taibai Mountain must have moved for four times on the millennium scale. Being a stochastic oscillation boundary, treeline appears in a semi stable condition on the century scale. The tree species line is even more unstable, which appears in an unstable status on the decades scale. The comparison of the stability within several landscape boundaries, shed light on the sensibility of these communities to various perturbation and environmental heterogeneity, i.e., herb community is the most sensitive one, which is followed by shrubs, and forest is the most stable one. Trees and shrubs can adapt to rocky and poor soils. On the contrary, alpine herbs are able to adapt to wetter and cooler soils. Finally, under a scenario of a temperature of 1.5 4.5℃ increase, the present timberline will be relatively stable but treeline and tree species line will move upward.
