Title: Interactions between snow, canopy, and vegetation in a boreal coniferous forest
Abstract: Abstract Background: Snow is known to have a major impact on the distribution of plants in arctic and alpine ecosystems; however, its impact on understorey vegetation in boreal forests is little reported. Aims: To study the effects of trees on the distribution of snow and examine the small-scale spatial relation between snow distribution and ground vegetation. Methods: Detailed spatial variation in snow depth and summer precipitation, canopy dimensions and locations of individual trees, and ground vegetation cover were observed in a coniferous forest, and the spatial correlations between these variables were examined. Results: Spatial patterns of snow remained unchanged throughout the winter and across two different winters. Snow depth showed significant correlations with different tree influence indices calculated based on the distance to the trunk, height, diameter or canopy extent. Dwarf shrub cover correlated positively with snow, and moss cover correlated negatively with the tree influence indices. The highest covers of Vaccinium myrtillus, V. vitis-idaea and Hylocomium splendens were observed on patches with thick snow cover. Linnaea borealis, in contrast, was absent from these patches. Pleurozium schreberi and Dicranum polysetum were most abundant on patches with moderate snow. Conclusions: Trees do not only affect ground vegetation through competition, but also have indirect effects associated with uneven snow cover. Our results suggest that, like arctic and alpine species, boreal forest understorey species show differences in their snow affinity. Keywords: dwarf shrubsmossessnowspatial distributiontreesvegetation Acknowledgements Hanna Leisti, Olli-Kalle Kauppinen and Tuomas Niskanen assisted us with the fieldwork. The Lammi biological station and the HAMK University of Applied Sciences provided logistic support. Heikki Hänninen, Helena Åström, and three anonymous reviewers offered valuable comments on the manuscript. This work was funded through the Academy of Finland (project numbers 115532 and 122194), the Environmental Research Centre of the University of Helsinki HERC, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, and the Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation.
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 35
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