Apparent changes in vegetation distribution, fire, and other disturbance regimes throughout western North America have prompted investigations of the relative importance of human activities and climate change as potential causal mechanisms. Assessing the effects of Euro-American settlement is difficult because climate changes occur on multi-decadal to centennial time scales and require longer t...

Spatial dimension of abandoned fields has been expanding more in rural subalpine zones of Nepal leading to various patterns of secondary succession. The secondary succession in the subalpine Himalayas has not yet been evaluated. Here, I describe a study initiated in Manang district, Central Nepal where enough abandoned fields of different chronosequences were located. A definitive successional ...

We examined the threat status of the low tree Pittosporum patulum throughout its range in eastern South Island, based on plot-based sampling of habitat, defoliation by mammalian herbivores, demographic and dieback characteristics. Using environmental modelling (Land Environments of New Zealand), we found no explanation for the ‘gap’ in its disjunct distribution from Nelson–Marlborough–north Can...

The results of eight years of study of the ectomycorrhizal macrofungi at the subalpine Lyman Lake Basin (Glacier Peak Wilderness area in the North Cascade Mountains, Washington, USA) are reported. The basin was divided into three sites: the primary successional glacier forefront vs two secondary successional habitats (subalpine parkland and old-growth montane Tsuga mertensiana-Abies amabilis). ...

Landscapes in northern Patagonia have undergone dramatic changes in fire regimes over the last century. Superimposed on this changing vegetation mosaic are impacts from introduced herbivores. In this paper we identify synergistic interactions developing into positive fire-herbivory feedbacks that maximise vegetation change. Analyses of vegetation changes over 30 years at low altitude (c. 800m) ...

Seedlings of ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, white fir, Engelmann spruce, and subalpine fir were exposed continuously to charcoal-filtered (CF) air or one of three levels of a simulated ambient exposure typical of SO, pollution near smelters in the western United States. Seedlings were exposed during winter-spring experiments for 60 days to hourly means of 17, 38, and 54 ppb in 1988 and 35, 57, an...

Diversity and distribution of exotic plant taxa in Kosciuszko National Park in south-eastern Australia were reviewed based on 1103 records of exotics from 18 vegetation surveys conducted between 1986 and 2004. 154 taxa from 23 families were recorded in the alpine to montane zones, with eleven taxa in the alpine, 128 taxa in the subalpine and 69 taxa in the montane zone. Nearly all taxa were ass...

In order to assess changes in the community structure of ectomycorrhizal fungi across the tree line, data on distributions of fungi and their host plants, as well as on edaphic factors and stand age, were collected at two montane sites in the Front Range of the Canadian Rockies. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was used to explore relationships between fungal species composition and envi...

The natural environment of the Tatras is one of the most diverse in Europe in terms of species richness and ecological value. This mountain range is well preserved and constitutes an important part of Europe’s nature resources. Dwarf pine (Pinus mugo Turra) is the main component of the Tatras subalpine belt covering altitude between 1550 and 1800 m a.s.l. It is a very dynamic species, which exp...