小气候、雪盖及土壤湿度对高山生态系统功能的影响

1 Introduction High mountain landscapes above the tree-line are often regarded as close to nature, although human impact has obviously changed the environment, partly exceeding its carrying capac- ity (L?ffler, 2000). Due to their fragility regarding expected environmental changes and an increasing land use pressure in many regions, high mountain landscapes recently became a major focus within the discussion on a sustainable development in a worldwide (Messerli and Ives, 1997), and regional p…

The influence of micro-climate, snow cover, and soil moisture on ecosystem functioning in high mountains

The dynamics of water and energy fluxes in the high mountains of central Norway was studied along micro-spatial topographic gradients in different altitudes and regions of the Scandes. Landscape ecological processes like sdow accumulation during winter, snow melting, evaporation, percolation, soil moisture variability and temperature variations were quantified. Combining spatio-temporal data on physical environment functioning and vegetation patterns resulted in a process-oriented characterisation of high mountain ecosystems. Extensive data from long-term measurements were synthesised illustrating the influence of micro-climate, snow cover, and soil moisture on high mountain ecosystem functioning. The results reveal that the micro-climatic impact on the vegetation is predominantly determined by snow cover overlaying soil moisture gradients. Water only becomes superior where near-surface water saturation and flooding occur. A lack of soil moisture availability was not found during any time of the year even under driest site conditions. Contrasting literature, the Norwegian mountain vegetation was found to be interpreted by environmental variable constellations excluding drought stress.