Limited climatic space for alternative ecosystem states in Africa

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 sugge...

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Published inScience (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 380; no. 6649; pp. 1038 - 1042
Main Authors Higgins, Steven I, Conradi, Timo, Kruger, Laurence M, O'Hara, Robert B, Slingsby, Jasper A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 09.06.2023
Subjects
Africa
Climate
Climate change
Climate effects
Climate prediction
Ecosystem
Forests
Plant species
Plants
Savannahs
Spatial variations
Trees
Tropical forests
Vegetation
Vegetation patterns
Africa
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Summary: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.
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ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.add5190