Think globally, measure locally: The MIREN standardized protocol for monitoring plant species distributions along elevation gradients

Sylvia Haider (1, 2) , Jonas J. Lembrechts (3) , Keith Mcdougall (4) , Anibal Pauchard (5, 6) , Jake M. Alexander (7) , Agustina Barros (8) , Lohengrin A. Cavieres (9, 5) , Irfan Rashid (10) , Lisa J. Rew (11) , Alla Aleksanyan (12) , Jose R. Arevalo (13) , Valeria Aschero (14, 8) , Chelsea Chisholm (15) , V. Ralph Clark (16) , Jan Clavel (3) , Curtis Daehler (17) , Pervaiz A. Dar , Hansjorg Dietz (7) , Romina D. Dimarco (18, 19) , Peter Edwards (20) , Franz Essl (21) , Eduardo Fuentes-Lillo (3, 5, 9, 22) , Antoine Guisan (23) , Onalenna Gwate (16) , Anna L. Hargreaves (24) , Gabi Jakobs (7) , Alejandra Jimenez (5, 9) , Paul Kardol (25) , Christoph Kueffer (7, 26) , Christian Larson (27) , Jonathan Roger Michel Henri Lenoir (28) , Bernd Lenzner (21) , Miguel A. Padron Mederos (13) , Maritza Mihoc (9, 5) , Ann Milbau (29) , John W. Morgan (30) , Jana Mullerova (31) , Bridgett J. Naylor (32) , Ivan Nijs (3) , Martin A. Nunez (33) , Rudiger Otto (13) , Niels Preuk (1) , Amanda Ratier Backes (1, 34) , Zafar A. Reshi (10) , Sabine B. Rumpf (23, 35) , Veronica Sandoya (36, 37, 38) , Mellesa Schroder (39) , Karina L. Speziale (33) , Davnah Urbach (40) , Graciela Valencia (9, 5) , Vigdis Vandvik (41) , Michaela Vitkova (31) , Tom Vorstenbosch (21, 42) , Tom W. N. Walker (7, 43) , Neville Walsh (44) , Genevieve Wright (39) , Shengwei Zong (45) , Tim Seipel (27)

1 Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg
2 Georg-August-University = Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
3 UA - University of Antwerp
4 NSW DPI - New South Wales Department of Primary Industries
5 Universidad de Concepción - University of Concepcion [Chile]
6 IEB - Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad
7 ETH Zürich - Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology [Zürich]
8 CONICET-IANIGLA - Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales [Mendoza]
9 Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity and Department of Ecological Sciences
10 University of Kashmir,
11 University Bozeman
12 NAS RA - National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia [Yerevan]
13 ULL - Universidad de La Laguna [Tenerife - SP]
14 UNCUYO - Universidad Nacional de Cuyo [Mendoza]
15 Center Macroecology, Evolution and Climate
16 University of the Free State [South Africa]
17 UHM - University of Hawai‘i [Mānoa]
18 INTA UNPA CONICET SANTA CRUZ ARG
19 University of Houston
20 IBZ - Institute for Integrative Biology [Zürich]
21 University of Vienna [Vienna]
22 UNACH - Universidad Adventista de Chile - Adventist University of Chile
23 UNIL - Université de Lausanne = University of Lausanne
24 McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]
25 Department of Forest Ecology and Management
26 Stellenbosch University
27 MSU - Montana State University
28 EDYSAN - Ecologie et Dynamique des Systèmes Anthropisés - UMR CNRS 7058
29 INBO - Research Institute for Nature and Forest
30 La Trobe University
31 IB / CAS - Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences
32 USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station
33 INIBIOMA-CONICET - Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente [Bariloche]
34 iDiv - German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research
35 Unibas - University of Basel
36 Yachay Tech University
37 CREAF - Centre for Ecological Research and Applied Forestries
38 UAB - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
39 NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
40 University of Bern
41 UiB - University of Bergen
42 Leiden University
43 UNINE - Université de Neuchâtel
44 Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
45 Northeast Normal University

Climate change and other global change drivers threaten plant diversity in mountains worldwide. A widely documented response to such environmental modifications is for plant species to change their elevational ranges. Range shifts are often idiosyncratic and difficult to generalize, partly due to variation in sampling methods. There is thus a need for a standardized monitoring strategy that can be applied across mountain regions to assess distribution changes and community turnover of native and non-native plant species over space and time. Here, we present a conceptually intuitive and standardized protocol developed by the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN) to systematically quantify global patterns of native and non-native species distributions along elevation gradients and shifts arising from interactive effects of climate change and human disturbance. Usually repeated every five years, surveys consist of 20 sample sites located at equal elevation increments along three replicate roads per sampling region. At each site, three plots extend from the side of a mountain road into surrounding natural vegetation. The protocol has been successfully used in 18 regions worldwide from 2007 to present. Analyses of one point in time already generated some salient results, and revealed region-specific elevational patterns of native plant species richness, but a globally consistent elevational decline in non-native species richness. Non-native plants were also more abundant directly adjacent to road edges, suggesting that disturbed roadsides serve as a vector for invasions into mountains. From the upcoming analyses of time series, even more exciting results can be expected, especially about range shifts. Implementing the protocol in more mountain regions globally would help to generate a more complete picture of how global change alters species distributions. This would inform conservation policy in mountain ecosystems, where some conservation policies remain poorly implemented.

Mots clés: MIREN; Mountain Invasion Research Network; climate change; invasive species; long‐term ecological monitoring; mountain biodiversity; range dynamics; range expansions

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Sylvia Haider, Jonas J. Lembrechts, Keith Mcdougall, Anibal Pauchard, Jake M. Alexander, et al.. Think globally, measure locally: The MIREN standardized protocol for monitoring plant species distributions along elevation gradients. Ecology and Evolution, 2022, 12 (2), ⟨10.1002/ece3.8590⟩. ⟨hal-03619105⟩