Data and code for: "Widespread thermophilization but weak link to climate warming in Europe’s summit plant communities"

Résumé fourni par la source

Recent changes in alpine vegetation are often attributed to climate warming, particularly community composition shifts towards more warmth-associated species, or thermophilization. Here, we assess the link between thermophilization and warming across 53 European mountain summits. We combine long-term macro- and microclimatic temperature time series with vegetation surveys in 724 permanent plots, monitored over 21 years, to evaluate a possible thermophilization signal and relate it to rates of change in ten temperature metrics. We find evidence of both thermophilization of alpine plant communities and an increase in temperatures. However, while these two trends are related when averaged across mountain regions, their relationship is weak at the individual plot scale, especially when considering microclimatic temperature metrics. Instead, substrate conditions and particularly the availability of thermophilic colonizers in the surrounding vegetation have a major influence on plot-level thermophilization rates. We conclude that the response of plant communities to climate change strongly depends on the abiotic and biotic context, and intensified monitoring efforts are needed to reduce the resulting uncertainties.In this repository we provide the data and R-script required to replicate the results published in: Hausharter et al. 2026 - Widespread thermophilization but weak link to climate warming in Europe’s summit plant communities. Nature Ecology & Evolution VOLUME, pp. PAGES. DOI Plot_taxa.csv - contains plot-level lists of taxa occurring within 1x1 m vegetation plots along with their cover (in %)Upper_10m_summit_taxa.csv - contains summit-level lists of taxa occurring within any of eight sections in the upper 10 m of a summit along with their cover (in five classes)Elevational_ranks_EIV_T.csv - contains elevational ranks and ecological indicator values for temperature (EIV T; from: Dengler et al. 2023a, 2023b) for all taxa listed in Plot_taxa.csv and Upper_10m_summit_taxa.csvSummit_information_covariables.csv - contains coordinates, elevation, current forest line elevation for the individual summits and mountain regions, as well as plot-level information on the proportion of rock & scree cover and bare soil coverMacroclimate_yearly.csv - contains yearly summit-level macroclimatic temperature values for the following variables: mean annual temperature, mean/minimum/maximum summer temperature, mean/minimum/maximum winter temperature, mean/minimum/maximum June temperatureMicroclimate_yearly.csv - contains yearly summit-exposition-level (i.e. north, east, south, west for each summit) microclimatic temperature values for the following variables: mean annual temperature, mean/minimum/maximum summer temperature, mean/minimum/maximum winter temperature, mean/minimum/maximum June temperatureThermophilization_analyses.R - contains the code necessary for replicating the results using the provided dataReferences:Dengler J, Jansen F, Chusova O, Hüllbusch E, Nobis MP, Van Meerbeek K, Axmanová I, Bruun HH, Chytrý M, Guarino R, Karrer G, Moeys K, Raus T, Steinbauer MJ, Tichý L, Tyler T, Batsatsashvili K, Bita-Nicolae C, Didukh Y, Diekmann M, Englisch T, Fernández-Pascual E, Frank D, Graf U, Hájek M, Jelaska SD, Jiménez-Alfaro B, Julve P, Nakhutsrishvili G, Ozinga WA, Ruprecht E-K, Šilc U, Theurillat J-P, Gillet F (2023a) Ecological Indicator Values for Europe (EIVE) 1.0. Vegetation Classification and Survey 4: 7-29. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.98324Dengler, J., Jansen, F., Chusova, O., Hüllbusch, E., Nobis, M. P., Van Meerbeek, K., Axmanová, I., Bruun, H. H., Chytrý, M., Guarino, R., Karrer, G., Moeys, K., Raus, T., Steinbauer, M. J., Tichý, L., Tyler, T., Batsatsashvili, K., Bita-Nicolae, C., Didukh, Y., … Gillet, F. (2023). Supplementary material to: Dengler, J., Jansen., F., … & Gillet, F. (2023b) Ecological Indicator Values for Europe (EIVE) 1.0. Vegetation Classification and Survey. [Data set]. In Vegetation Classification and Survey (Vol. 4). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7534792