Species composition of coastal dune vegetation in Scotland has proved resistant to climate change over a third of a century

Robin J. Pakeman; Jim Alexander; Joan Beaton; Rob Brooker; Roger Cummins; Antonia Eastwood; Debbie Fielding; Julia Fisher; Sarah Gore; Richard Hewison; Russell Hooper; Jack Lennon; Ruth Mitchell; Emily Moore; Andrew Nolan; Katy Orford; Clare Pemberton; Dave Riach; Dave Sim; Jenni Stockan; Clare Trinder; Rob Lewis

doi:10.1111/gcb.12999

Species composition of coastal dune vegetation in Scotland has proved resistant to climate change over a third of a century

Robin J. Pakeman^* (Corresponding Author), Jim Alexander, Joan Beaton, Rob Brooker, Roger Cummins, Antonia Eastwood, Debbie Fielding, Julia Fisher, Sarah Gore, Richard Hewison, Russell Hooper, Jack Lennon, Ruth Mitchell, Emily Moore, Andrew Nolan, Katy Orford, Clare Pemberton, Dave Riach, Dave Sim, Jenni StockanClare Trinder, Rob Lewis

^*Corresponding author for this work

Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Climate change is expected to have an impact on plant communities as increased temperatures are expected to drive individual species' distributions polewards. The results of a revisitation study after c. 34years of 89 coastal sites in Scotland, UK, were examined to assess the degree of shifts in species composition that could be accounted for by climate change. There was little evidence for either species retreat northwards or for plots to become more dominated by species with a more southern distribution. At a few sites where significant change occurred, the changes were accounted for by the invasion, or in one instance the removal, of woody species. Also, the vegetation types that showed the most sensitivity to change were all early successional types and changes were primarily the result of succession rather than climate-driven changes. Dune vegetation appears resistant to climate change impacts on the vegetation, either as the vegetation is inherently resistant to change, management prevents increased dominance of more southerly species or because of dispersal limitation to geographically isolated sites.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3738-3747
Number of pages	10
Journal	Global Change Biology
Volume	21
Issue number	10
Early online date	3 Jul 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12999
Publication status	Published - Oct 2015

Bibliographical note

The resurvey would not have been possible without the many landowners/managers who gave their access permission and the many agency staff and others who facilitated this. It also could not have been done without the hard work of the original Institute of Terrestrial Ecology survey team. The work was funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Scottish Government's Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division. The authors would like to thank Martin Diekmann and an anonymous reviewer for their comments which helped improve the manuscript.

Keywords

machair
precipitation
sand dune
Scotland
temperature
vegetation change

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Pakeman, R. J., Alexander, J., Beaton, J., Brooker, R., Cummins, R., Eastwood, A., Fielding, D., Fisher, J., Gore, S., Hewison, R., Hooper, R., Lennon, J., Mitchell, R., Moore, E., Nolan, A., Orford, K., Pemberton, C., Riach, D., Sim, D., ... Lewis, R. (2015). Species composition of coastal dune vegetation in Scotland has proved resistant to climate change over a third of a century. Global Change Biology, 21(10), 3738-3747. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12999

Pakeman, RJ, Alexander, J, Beaton, J, Brooker, R, Cummins, R, Eastwood, A, Fielding, D, Fisher, J, Gore, S, Hewison, R, Hooper, R, Lennon, J, Mitchell, R, Moore, E, Nolan, A, Orford, K, Pemberton, C, Riach, D, Sim, D, Stockan, J, Trinder, C & Lewis, R 2015, 'Species composition of coastal dune vegetation in Scotland has proved resistant to climate change over a third of a century', Global Change Biology, vol. 21, no. 10, pp. 3738-3747. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12999

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abstract = "Climate change is expected to have an impact on plant communities as increased temperatures are expected to drive individual species' distributions polewards. The results of a revisitation study after c. 34years of 89 coastal sites in Scotland, UK, were examined to assess the degree of shifts in species composition that could be accounted for by climate change. There was little evidence for either species retreat northwards or for plots to become more dominated by species with a more southern distribution. At a few sites where significant change occurred, the changes were accounted for by the invasion, or in one instance the removal, of woody species. Also, the vegetation types that showed the most sensitivity to change were all early successional types and changes were primarily the result of succession rather than climate-driven changes. Dune vegetation appears resistant to climate change impacts on the vegetation, either as the vegetation is inherently resistant to change, management prevents increased dominance of more southerly species or because of dispersal limitation to geographically isolated sites.",

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KW - temperature

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Species composition of coastal dune vegetation in Scotland has proved resistant to climate change over a third of a century

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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Cite this