Drivers of local extinction risk in alpine plants under warming climate


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Date

2021-06

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

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Abstract

The scarcity of local plant extinctions following recent climate change has been explained by demographic inertia and lags in the displacement of resident species by novel species, generating an ‘extinction debt’. We established a transplant experiment to disentangle the contribution of these processes to the local extinction risk of four alpine plants in the Swiss Alps. Projected population growth (λ) derived from integral projection models was reduced by 0.07/°C of warming on average, whereas novel species additionally decreased λ by 0.15 across warming levels. Effects of novel species on predicted extinction time were greatest at warming < 2 °C for two species. Projected population declines under both warming and with novel species were primarily driven by increased mortality. Our results suggest that extinction debt can be explained by a combination of demographic inertia and lags in novel species establishment, with the latter being particularly important for some species under low levels of warming.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Volume

24 (6)

Pages / Article No.

1157 - 1166

Publisher

Wiley

Event

Edition / version

Methods

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Date collected

Date created

Subject

Climate change; competition; Demography; elevation gradient; extinction risk; integral projection models; novel species; population growth rate; population-dynamics; transplant experiment

Organisational unit

09666 - Alexander, Jake (ehemalig) / Alexander, Jake (former) check_circle

Notes

Funding

678841 - Novel`interactions and species’ responses to climate change (EC)

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