How do soil properties affect alpine treelines? General principles in a global perspective and novel findings from Rolwaling Himal, Nepal

Abstract

Little is known about how soil properties control tree growth at its upper limit. This paper reviews the state of knowledge and discusses the results specifically related to ecozones, to the scale-dependent importance of single factors, and to new findings from a near-natural treeline ecotone in Rolwaling Himal, Nepal. This paper identifies gaps in literature and shows where new research is needed, both conceptual and geographical. The review shows that at a global scale and throughout diverse ecozones, growing season soil temperature is considered a key factor for tree growth. Soil temperatures differ greatly at a local scale, and are mainly determined by local climatic, edaphic, and topographic conditions. Our result of 7.6 ± 0.6°C for growing season mean soil temperature at treeline in Rolwaling is 1.2 K higher compared to the postulated 6.4 ± 0.7°C for alpine treelines. We suggest a broadening of the ±0.7°C error term to cover the wide range at a local scale. The role of major soil nutrients and soil moisture for treeline shift has been underestimated by far. In Rolwaling, significantly decreasing nutrient availability (N, K, Mg) in soils and foliage with elevation might explain why treeline shift and global warming are decoupled. Further, soil moisture deficits early in the year impede seedling and sapling establishment, which could be an important mechanism that controls treeline position. These findings question previous results which argue that alpine treelines are unaffected by soil nutrient availability and soil moisture. We assume that specific combinations of soil properties as well as single soil properties limit tree growth even below climatic treelines.