How species respond to climate change will depend on biological characteristics, species
physiological limits, traits (such as dispersal), and interactions with disturbance. We examine …

Alpine treeline ecotones are considered early-warning monitors of the effects of climate
change on terrestrial ecosystems, but it is still unclear how accurately treeline dynamics may …

Alpine treeline ecosystems are generally expected to advance with increasing temperatures
and after land-use abandonment. Multiple interacting factors modify this trend …

Key message Moderate-severity fire disturbances can accelerate upslope shifts of alpine
treelines by reducing interspecific interactions, providing additional evidence for the species …

Aim Most studies focusing on the alpine tree line responses to climate warming have used
either the tree densification within the ecotone or its elevational upshift as indicators …

Whilst it is clear that increasing temperatures from global environmental change will impact
the positions of alpine treelines, it is likely that a range of regional and local scaled factors …

Globally, treeline ecotones vary from abrupt lines to extended zones of increasingly small,
stunted and/or dispersed trees. These spatial patterns contain information about the …

A growing body of evidence suggests that processes of upward treeline expansion and
shifts in vegetation zones may occur in response to climate change. However, such shifts …

Alpine treelines are expected to move upward in a warming climate, but downward in
response to increases in wildfire. We studied the effects of fire on vegetation structure and …

The distributions of many high-elevation tree species have shifted as a result of recent
climate change; however, there is substantial variability in the movement of alpine treelines …