SeedClim (2009-2014) The role of seeds in a climate – linking germination ecophysiology to population and community ecology.
Background and objectives
The general objective of SeedClim was to provide a mechanistic understanding of how ongoing and future climate change affects plants at landscape to regional scales. To achieve this we developed a new methodological framework allowing us to explore how climate-change effects vary along two major climate gradients, temperature and precipitation, and how these effects scale across levels of organisation from individuals via populations to communities.
The western Norwegian fjord landscapes allow us to set up a grid of study sites along independent temperature and precipitation gradients, enabling us to study the unique and combined effects of a warmer and a wetter climate.
Our 12 experimental sites are located in a climate grid where four levels of annual precipitation (600, 1200, 2000 and 2700 mm) are combined with three levels of mean summer temperatures (7.5, 9.5, and 11.5°C) while keeping all other variables as constant as possible. In collaboration with met.no we installed climate stations that record temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture at each site since 2009.
Within the climatic grid, we have transplanted turfs (25 x 25 cm) of intact plant communities from cold and/or dry conditions towards warmer and/or wetter conditions matching the regional climate projections for the future. In these turfs we monitor plant community and population responses, along with one-off measurements of a range of responses, including microbial communities, bryophytes, and seedling recruitment.
We have also transplanted seeds of three species pairs of alpine specialists and lowland generalists in the same manner (Veronica alpina vs. V. officinalis, Viola biflora vs. V. palustris, Carex capillaris vs. C. pallescens) to assess climate impacts on plant regeneration.
Additional experiments
In addition to our main approach, the transplant experiments, we also carried out other experiments and studies under the SeedClim umbrella:
- A graminoid removal experiment to assess the impacts of changing competitive interactions on plant community and population-level responses along the climate gradients
- A gap experiment to assess impacts on gap regeneration
- A seed rain and seedbank study
- A seed sowing experiment to assess tree seedling recruitment (collaboration with M. Ohlson, NMBU)
Publications
- Biotic rescaling reveals importance of species interactions for variation in biodiversity responses to climate change.
Vigdis Vandvik, Olav Skarpaas, Kari Klanderud, Richard J. Telford, Aud H. Halbritter, Deborah E. Goldberg. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Sep 2020, 117 (37) 22858-22865; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2003377117
- Quantifying the roles of seed dispersal, filtering, and climate on regional patterns of grassland biodiversity.
Guittar, J., Goldberg, D., Klanderud, K., Berge, A., Ramírez Boixaderas, M., Meineri, E., Töpper, J., and Vandvik, V.. 2020. Ecology 101( 10):e03061. 10.1002/ecy.3061
- Functional traits, not productivity, predict alpine plant community openness to seedling recruitment under climatic warming.
Meineri, E., Klanderud, K., Guittar, J., Goldberg, D.E. and Vandvik, V. (2020), Oikos, 129: 13-23. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.06243
- The devil is in the detail: Nonadditive and context‐dependent plant population responses to increasing temperature and precipitation.
Töpper, JP, Meineri, E, Olsen, SL, Rydgren, K, Skarpaas, O, Vandvik, V. Glob Change Biol. 2018; 24: 4657– 4666. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14336
- Genetic differentiation and plasticity interact along temperature and precipitation gradients to determine plant performance under climate change.
Münzbergová, Z., Hadincová, V., Skálová, H. and Vandvik, V. (2017), J Ecol, 105: 1358-1373. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12762
- Stay or go – how topographic complexity influences alpine plant population and community responses to climate change.
Bente J. Graae, Vigdis Vandvik, W. Scott Armbruster, Wolf L. Eiserhardt, Jens-Christian Svenning, Kristoffer Hylander, Johan Ehrlén, James D.M Speed, Kari Klanderud, Kari Anne Bråthen, Ann Milbau, Øystein H. Opedal, Inger G. Alsos, Rasmus Ejrnæs, Hans Henrik Bruun, H. John B. Birks, Kristine B. Westergaard, Hilary H. Birks, Jonathan Lenoir. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, Volume 30, 2018, Pages 41-50, ISSN 1433-8319, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2017.09.008.
- Plastic and genetic responses to shifts in snowmelt time affects the reproductive phenology and growth of Ranunculus acris.
Nicola Delnevo, Alessandro Petraglia, Michele Carbognani, Vigdis Vandvik, Aud H. Halbritter, Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, Volume 30, 2018, Pages 62-70, ISSN 1433-8319, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2017.07.005.
- Biotic interaction effects on seedling recruitment along bioclimatic gradients: testing the stress‐gradient hypothesis.
Klanderud, K., Meineri, E., Töpper, J., Michel, P. and Vandvik, V. (2017), J Veg Sci, 28: 347-356. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12495
- Biomass partitioning in grassland plants along independent gradients in temperature and precipitation.
Olav Skarpaas, Eric Meineri, Tessa Bargmann, Christine Pötsch, Joachim Töpper, Vigdis Vandvik, Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, Volume 19, 2016, Pages 1-11, ISSN 1433-8319, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2016.01.006.
- The Importance of Biotic vs. Abiotic Drivers of Local Plant Community Composition Along Regional Bioclimatic Gradients
Klanderud K, Vandvik V, Goldberg D (2015) PLOS ONE 10(6): e0130205. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130205
- Temperature, precipitation and biotic interactions as determinants of tree seedling recruitment across the tree line ecotone.
Tingstad, L., Olsen, S.L., Klanderud, K. et al. Oecologia 179, 599–608 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3360-0
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Seed banks are biodiversity reservoirs: species–area relationships above versus below ground.
Vandvik, V., Klanderud, K., Meineri, E., Måren, I.E. and Töpper, J. (2016), Oikos, 125: 218-228. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.02022
- Direct and size‐dependent effects of climate on flowering performance in alpine and lowland herbaceous species.
Meineri, E., Skarpaas, O., Spindelböck, J., Bargmann, T. and Vandvik, V. (2014), J Veg Sci, 25: 275-286. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12062
- Conditional cold avoidance drives between-population variation in germination behaviour in Calluna vulgaris.
Joachim P. Spindelböck, Zoë Cook, Matthew I. Daws, Einar Heegaard, Inger E. Måren, Vigdis Vandvik, , Annals of Botany, Volume 112, Issue 5, September 2013, Pages 801–810, https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mct142
- Seedling emergence responds to both seed source and recruitment site climates: a climate change experiment combining transplant and gradient approaches.
Meineri, E., Spindelböck, J. & Vandvik, V. Plant Ecol 214, 607–619 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-013-0193-y
- Physical dormancy in seeds: a game of hide and seek?
Paulsen, T.R., Colville, L., Kranner, I., Daws, M.I., Högstedt, G., Vandvik, V. and Thompson, K. (2013), New Phytol, 198: 496-503. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.12191
- Local temperatures inferred from plant communities suggest strong spatial buffering of climate warming across Northern Europe.
Lenoir, J., Graae, B.J., Aarrestad, P.A., Alsos, I.G., Armbruster, W.S., Austrheim, G., Bergendorff, C., Birks, H.J.B., Bråthen, K.A., Brunet, J., Bruun, H.H., Dahlberg, C.J., Decocq, G., Diekmann, M., Dynesius, M., Ejrnæs, R., Grytnes, J.‐A., Hylander, K., Klanderud, K., Luoto, M., Milbau, A., Moora, M., Nygaard, B., Odland, A., Ravolainen, V.T., Reinhardt, S., Sandvik, S.M., Schei, F.H., Speed, J.D.M., Tveraabak, L.U., Vandvik, V., Velle, L.G., Virtanen, R., Zobel, M. and Svenning, J.‐C. (2013), Glob Change Biol, 19: 1470-1481. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12129
- Modeling alpine plant distributions at the landscape scale: Do biotic interactions matter?
Eric Meineri, Olav Skarpaas, Vigdis Vandvik, Ecological Modelling, Volume 231, 2012, Pages 1-10, ISSN 0304-3800, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.01.021
- Conditions favouring hard seededness as a dispersal and predator escape strategy.
Paulsen, T.R., Högstedt, G., Thompson, K., Vandvik, V. and Eliassen, S. (2014), J Ecol, 102: 1475-1484. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12323
- Predicting and assessing climate-change impacts on the population dynamics of alpine and lowland forbs
Joachim Paul Töpper, 2015
ISBN: 978-82-308-2620-1
- Assessing and comparing climatic control on distribution and reproduction of alpine and lowland species in the sub-alpine habitat of western Norway
Eric Pierre F Meineri, 2012
ISBN: 978-82-308-1957-9