Alpine Treelines (eBook)

Christian Körner was born in 1949 in Salzburg, Austria, got his academic degrees from the University of Innsbruck, and became professor of botany at the University of Basel, Switzerland in 1989. He published over 300 scientific articles on plant-environment interactions and authored and coauthored numerous scientific books, including the leading plant science textbook Strasburger.

1.  High elevation treelines1.1 The task1.2 Previous works 2.  Definitions and conventions2.1 The life form ‘tree’2.2 Lines and transitions2.3 Limitation, stress and disturbance2.4 Altitude-related and other environmental drivers2.5 Treeline nomenclature 3.  Treeline patterns3.1 Treeline taxa3.2 The summit syndrome and other treeline depressions3.3 Mass elevation effect3.4 Treeline elevation3.5 Time matters3.6 Forest structure near treeline                                         4.  Treeline climate4.1 Specific aspects of treeline climatology4.2 Criteria to define temperature regimes at treeline4.3 Treeline temperatures in different bioclimatic regions4.4 Seedbed and branch temperatures4.5 Whole forest temperatures 5.  Global mountain statistics based on treeline elevation5.1 Mountain geostatistics5.2 Elevational belts5.3 Global treeline ecotones 6.  Structure and stature of treeline trees6.1 Foliage properties6.2 Wood properties6.3 Bark properties6.4 Root traits6.5 Tree stature6.6 Dry matter allocation in treeline trees 7.  Growth and development7.1 Tree growth near treeline7.2 Xylogenesis at treeline7.3 Apical growth dynamics7.4 Root growth7.5 Phenology at treeline 8.  Evolutionary adjustments to life at treeline8.1 Phylogenetic selection8.2 Genotypic responses of growth and development8.3 Genotypic responses of physiological traits 9.  Reproduction, early life stages and tree demography9.1 Amount and quality of seeds at high elevation9.2 Germination, seedling and sapling stage9.3 Tree demography at treeline 10.  Freezing and other forms of stress10.1 Stress at treeline in a fitness context10.2 Mechanisms and principles of freezing resistance10.3 Freezing resistance in treeline trees10.4 Other forms of stress at treeline 11.  Water, nutrient and carbon relations11.1 Tree water relations during the growing season11.2 Nutrient relations11.3 Carbon relations 12.  Treeline formation – currently, in the past and in the future 12.1 Causes of current treelines12.2 Treelines in the recent past12.3. Treelines in the distant past (Holocene)12.4 Future treelinesReferencesTaxonomic indexSubject index