Limited climatic space for alternative ecosystem states in Africa.

Autor: Higgins SI; Plant Ecology, University of Bayreuth, Universitaetsstrasse 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany., Conradi T; Plant Ecology, University of Bayreuth, Universitaetsstrasse 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany., Kruger LM; Organization for Tropical Studies, P.O. Box 33, Skukuza, 1350, South Africa.; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa., O'Hara RB; Department of Mathematical Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim N-7491 Norway., Slingsby JA; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa.; Centre for Statistics in Ecology, the Environment and Conservation, University of Cape Town, South Africa.; Fynbos Node, South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), South Africa.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Science (New York, N.Y.) [Science] 2023 Jun 09; Vol. 380 (6649), pp. 1038-1042. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Jun 08.
DOI: 10.1126/science.add5190
Abstrakt: One of the foundational premises of ecology is that climate determines ecosystems. This has been challenged by alternative ecosystem state models, which illustrate that internal ecosystem dynamics acting on the initial ecosystem state can overwhelm the influence of climate, and by observations suggesting that climate cannot reliably discriminate forest and savanna ecosystem types. Using a novel phytoclimatic transform, which estimates the ability of climate to support different types of plants, we show that climatic suitability for evergreen trees and C4 grasses are sufficient to discriminate between forest and savanna in Africa. Our findings reassert the dominant influence of climate on ecosystems and suggest that the role of feedbacks causing alternative ecosystem states is less prevalent than has been suggested.
Databáze: MEDLINE
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