The development of terrestrial ecosystems emerging after glacier retreat

Gentile Francesco Ficetola (), Silvio Marta (), Alessia Guerrieri, Isabel Cantera, Aurélie Bonin, Sophie Cauvy-Fraunié, Roberto Ambrosini, Marco Caccianiga, Fabien Anthelme, Roberto Sergio Azzoni, Peter Almond, Pablo Alviz Gazitúa, Jorge Luis Ceballos Lievano, Pritam Chand, Milap Chand Sharma, John J. Clague, Justiniano Alejo Cochachín Rapre, Chiara Compostella, Rolando Cruz Encarnación, Olivier Dangles, Philip Deline, Andre Eger, Sergey Erokhin, Andrea Franzetti, Ludovic Gielly, Fabrizio Gili, Mauro Gobbi, Sigmund Hågvar, Rüdiger Kaufmann, Norine Khedim, Rosa Isela Meneses, Marco Aurelio Morales-Martínez, Gwendolyn Peyre, Francesca Pittino, Angela Proietto, Antoine Rabatel, Katrin Sieron, Levan Tielidze, Nurai Urseitova, Yan Yang, Vitalii Zaginaev, Andrea Zerboni, Anaïs Zimmer, Guglielmina Adele Diolaiuti, Pierre Taberlet, Jerome Poulenard, Diego Fontaneto, Wilfried Thuiller and Alexis Carteron ()
Additional contact information
Gentile Francesco Ficetola: Università degli Studi di Milano
Silvio Marta: Università degli Studi di Milano
Alessia Guerrieri: Università degli Studi di Milano
Isabel Cantera: Università degli Studi di Milano
Aurélie Bonin: Università degli Studi di Milano
Sophie Cauvy-Fraunié: Centre de Lyon-Villeurbanne
Roberto Ambrosini: Università degli Studi di Milano
Marco Caccianiga: Università degli Studi di Milano
Fabien Anthelme: INRAE
Roberto Sergio Azzoni: Università degli Studi di Milano
Peter Almond: Lincoln University
Pablo Alviz Gazitúa: Universidad de Los Lagos
Jorge Luis Ceballos Lievano: Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales IDEAM
Pritam Chand: VPO-Ghudda
Milap Chand Sharma: Jawaharlal Nehru University
John J. Clague: Simon Fraser University
Justiniano Alejo Cochachín Rapre: Autoridad Nacional del Agua
Chiara Compostella: Università degli Studi di Milano
Rolando Cruz Encarnación: Autoridad Nacional del Agua
Olivier Dangles: University of Paul Valéry Montpellier 3
Philip Deline: EDYTEM
Andre Eger: Soils and Landscapes
Sergey Erokhin: Kyrgyz National Academy of Sciences
Andrea Franzetti: University of Milano-Bicocca
Ludovic Gielly: LECA
Fabrizio Gili: Università degli Studi di Milano
Mauro Gobbi: MUSE-Science Museum
Sigmund Hågvar: Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Rüdiger Kaufmann: University of Innsbruck
Norine Khedim: EDYTEM
Rosa Isela Meneses: Herbario Nacional de Bolivia: La Paz
Marco Aurelio Morales-Martínez: Xalapa
Gwendolyn Peyre: University of the Andes
Francesca Pittino: University of Milano-Bicocca
Angela Proietto: Università degli Studi di Milano
Antoine Rabatel: Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE UMR 5001)
Katrin Sieron: Xalapa
Levan Tielidze: Monash University
Nurai Urseitova: Kyrgyz National Academy of Sciences
Yan Yang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Vitalii Zaginaev: Kyrgyz National Academy of Sciences
Andrea Zerboni: Università degli Studi di Milano
Anaïs Zimmer: University of Texas at Austin
Guglielmina Adele Diolaiuti: Università degli Studi di Milano
Pierre Taberlet: LECA
Jerome Poulenard: EDYTEM
Diego Fontaneto: CNR — Water Research Institute
Wilfried Thuiller: LECA
Alexis Carteron: Università degli Studi di Milano

Nature, 2024, vol. 632, issue 8024, 336-342

Abstract: Abstract The global retreat of glaciers is dramatically altering mountain and high-latitude landscapes, with new ecosystems developing from apparently barren substrates1–4. The study of these emerging ecosystems is critical to understanding how climate change interacts with microhabitat and biotic communities and determines the future of ice-free terrains1,5. Here, using a comprehensive characterization of ecosystems (soil properties, microclimate, productivity and biodiversity by environmental DNA metabarcoding6) across 46 proglacial landscapes worldwide, we found that all the environmental properties change with time since glaciers retreated, and that temperature modulates the accumulation of soil nutrients. The richness of bacteria, fungi, plants and animals increases with time since deglaciation, but their temporal patterns differ. Microorganisms colonized most rapidly in the first decades after glacier retreat, whereas most macroorganisms took longer. Increased habitat suitability, growing complexity of biotic interactions and temporal colonization all contribute to the increase in biodiversity over time. These processes also modify community composition for all the groups of organisms. Plant communities show positive links with all other biodiversity components and have a key role in ecosystem development. These unifying patterns provide new insights into the early dynamics of deglaciated terrains and highlight the need for integrated surveillance of their multiple environmental properties5.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07778-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:632:y:2024:i:8024:d:10.1038_s41586-024-07778-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07778-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().