Assessing the Role of Selected Osmolytes in Mediterranean High-Mountain Specialists

Despite the constraining weight of summer drought over plant life which distinguishes Mediterranean high-mountains, and its anticipated exacerbation under the current climate crisis, there is still little knowledge of the underlying drought-endurance mechanisms in Mediterranean high-mountain species, such as osmolyte accumulation. To fill this gap, we studied the role of two of the most frequent osmoregulators in plants, proline and osmotically active carbohydrates (OAC), as pointers of the drought-stress response in seven high-mountain plant species representative of the high-mountain plant communities in Central Spain, along an elevation gradient. Overall, our results are consistent with the escalation of summer drought and suggest the involvement of osmolytes to sustain plant activity in these specialists during the growing season. Proline content showed a steadily increasing pattern in line with the seasonal aggravation of summer drought. The significant rise in mean proline in most species, coinciding with the periods with the greatest decline in soil water content, suggests the recurrent role of proline in the drought-stress response in the studied specialists. The lack of significant differences between elevations and the minimal seasonal variations in the OAC content suggest a fixed OAC content independent of functional type to sustain metabolic functions under summer drought. Moreover, these findings allow inferring the action of both OAC and proline as osmoregulators, allowing to support plant functions in these specialists under atypically dry conditions. Overall, our findings are consistent with proline as a major osmoprotectant strategy over OAC buildup in these specialists, which may be related to an adaptation strategy associated with the briefness of the growing season and the incidence of less favorable conditions in Mediterranean high-mountains.

Resident vegetation modifies climate-driven elevational shift of a mountain sedge

Mountain plant species are changing their ranges in response to global warming. However, these shifts vary tremendously in rate, extent and direction. The reasons for this variation are yet poorly understood. A process potentially important for mountain plant re-distribution is a competition between colonizing species and the resident vegetation. Here, we focus on the impact of this process using the recent elevational shift of the sedge Carex humilis in the northern Italian Alps as a model system. We repeated and extended historical sampling (conducted in 1976) of the species in the study region. We used the historical distribution data and historical climatic maps to parameterize a species distribution model (SDM) and projected the potential distribution of the species under current conditions. We compared the historical and the current re-survey for the species in terms of the cover of important potential competitor species as well as in terms of the productivity of the resident vegetation indicated by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). We found that Carex humilis has shifted its leading range margin upward rapidly (51.2 m per decade) but left many sites that have become climatically suitable since 1976 according to the SDM uncolonized. These suitable but uncolonized sites show significantly higher coverage of all dwarf shrub species and higher NDVI than the sites occupied by the sedge. These results suggest that resistance of the resident vegetation against colonization of migrating species can indeed play an important role in controlling the re-distribution of mountain plants under climate change.