Changes in plant community composition lag behind climate warming in lowland forests

Romain Bertrand (), Jonathan Lenoir, Christian Piedallu, Gabriela Riofrío-Dillon, Patrice de Ruffray, Claude Vidal, Jean-Claude Pierrat and Jean-Claude Gégout
Additional contact information
Romain Bertrand: AgroParisTech, ENGREF, UMR1092 Laboratoire d’Étude des Ressources Forêt-Bois (LERFoB), 14 rue Girardet
Jonathan Lenoir: Ecoinformatics & Biodiversity Group, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114
Christian Piedallu: AgroParisTech, ENGREF, UMR1092 Laboratoire d’Étude des Ressources Forêt-Bois (LERFoB), 14 rue Girardet
Gabriela Riofrío-Dillon: AgroParisTech, ENGREF, UMR1092 Laboratoire d’Étude des Ressources Forêt-Bois (LERFoB), 14 rue Girardet
Patrice de Ruffray: CNRS, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes (IBMP), Université de Strasbourg (UDS), 12 rue du Général Zimmer
Claude Vidal: Inventaire Forestier National, Château des Barres
Jean-Claude Pierrat: AgroParisTech, ENGREF, UMR1092 Laboratoire d’Étude des Ressources Forêt-Bois (LERFoB), 14 rue Girardet
Jean-Claude Gégout: AgroParisTech, ENGREF, UMR1092 Laboratoire d’Étude des Ressources Forêt-Bois (LERFoB), 14 rue Girardet

Nature, 2011, vol. 479, issue 7374, 517-520

Abstract: Lowland forests overtaken by climate change Climate change is causing a shift in plant species distributions, but the speed at which this happens depends on local conditions. A 2009 Nature paper ( go.nature.com/yuz2we ) showed that the velocity of climate change is higher in lowland than in highland areas, suggesting that the lag behind climate warming might be greater for lowland species than that for highland species. This suspicion is confirmed in a study of forests distributed across France. A comparison of temperature trends against temperatures reconstructed from thousands of species assemblages across a 44-year period (1965–2008) indicated a temperature lag between the climate and plant community composition in lowland forests that was more than three times that seen in highland forests. This finding has implications for conservation policy. Attention has focused on mountain-top extinctions as a likely consequence of climate warming, but the inertia of forest plant communities suggests that species in lowland forest ecosystems are also at risk.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1038/nature10548

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