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Annals of Botany 90: 537-544, 2002
© 2002 Annals of Botany Company

REVIEW

Impacts of Climate Change on the Tree Line

JOHN GRACE*,1, FRANK BERNINGER2 and LASZLO NAGY1

1 Institute of Ecology & Resource Management, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JU, UK and 2 Department of Forest Ecology, PO Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

* For correspondence. Fax +44 (0)131 662 0478, e-mail jgrace{at}ed.ac.uk

Received: 1 February 2002; Returned for revision: 23 April 2002; Accepted: 2 July 2002

The possible effects of climate change on the advance of the tree line are considered. As temperature, elevated CO2 and nitrogen deposition co-vary, it is impossible to disentangle their impacts without performing experiments. However, it does seem very unlikely that photosynthesis per se and, by implication, factors that directly influence photosynthesis, such as elevated CO2, will be as important as those factors which influence the capacity of the tree to use the products of photosynthesis, such as temperature. Moreover, temperature limits growth more severely than it limits photosynthesis over the temperature range 5–20 °C. If it is assumed that growth and reproduction are controlled by temperature, a rapid advance of the tree line would be predicted. Indeed, some authors have provided photographic evidence and remotely sensed data that suggest this is, in fact, occurring. In regions inhabited by grazing animals, the advance of the tree line will be curtailed, although growth of trees below the tree line will of course increase substantially.

Key words: Review, tree line, krummholz, alpine, arctic, CO2, N-deposition, global warming.


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