Overall ordination of the grid.

<p>Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) of measured biotic (green) and abiotic (black) environmental variables and alpine (▲), sub-alpine (●) and boreal (▼) sites along a precipitation gradient (1–4 from light to dark blue, see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0130205#pone.0130205.g001" target="_blank">Fig 1</a>) in southern Norway. LOI refers to Loss-On-Ignition, a measure of soil organic matter. Eigenvalues axis 1 = 0.472, axis 2 = 0.248, axis 3 = 0.182, axis 4 = 0.137. Only the two first axes are shown.</p

Variation explained at broad and fine geographical scales.

<p>Compositional variation in graminoid and forb species (% of total deviance [CCA] or variation [RDA]) explained by abiotic and biotic environmental variables, grouped and separately, at the a) regional/among site scale and b) local/within site scale when all sites are part of the same canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Part c) shows parallel results for separate site-wise redundancy analyses (RDA) analyses for each of eleven grassland sites in southern Norway. LOI refers to Loss-On-Ignition, a measure of soil organic matter.</p

Map and study design.

<p>Location of the twelve study sites along temperature and precipitation gradients in the fjord landscape of southern Norway.</p

Vandvik_germination

Data from for lab germination experiments and a field regeneration experiment of 11 alpine grassland forbs in Norway in 1998-2000

Vandvik_germination

Data from for lab germination experiments and a field regeneration experiment of 11 alpine grassland forbs in Norway in 1998-2000

Regression slopes and associated p-values (* <i>p</i> < 0.05, · <i>p</i> < 0.1, no symbol = not significant) of relationships between variation in forb and graminoid species composition explained by local abiotic and biotic environmental variables in redundancy analyses (RDA) of local grassland species composition along broad scale temperature and precipitation gradients in southern Norway.

<p>LOI refers to Loss-On-Ignition, a measure of soil organic matter. n = 11.</p><p>Regression slopes and associated p-values (* <i>p</i> < 0.05, · <i>p</i> < 0.1, no symbol = not significant) of relationships between variation in forb and graminoid species composition explained by local abiotic and biotic environmental variables in redundancy analyses (RDA) of local grassland species composition along broad scale temperature and precipitation gradients in southern Norway.</p

Altitude, annual precipitation, summer temperature, number of plots sampled and mean ± standard deviations of predictor variables at alpine, sub alpine, and boreal grassland sites along precipitation gradients (low [1] to high [4]) in southern Norway.

<p>LOI refers to Loss-On-Ignition, a measure of soil organic matter.</p><p>Altitude, annual precipitation, summer temperature, number of plots sampled and mean ± standard deviations of predictor variables at alpine, sub alpine, and boreal grassland sites along precipitation gradients (low [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0130205#pone.0130205.ref001" target="_blank">1</a>] to high [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0130205#pone.0130205.ref004" target="_blank">4</a>]) in southern Norway.</p

ANOVA estimates, F- and P-values of the relative proportion of the explained variation accounted for by biotic (vs abiotic) variables in redundancy analyses (RDA) of graminoid and forb species composition in grassland sites along temperature and precipitation gradients in southern Norway.

<p>Temperature and precipitation are expressed factorial variables (three temperature levels: alpine, sub-alpine, boreal, and four precipitation levels 1–4). Functional type (graminoid vs forb) and its interactions were not significant and therefore not included in the final model. n = 22.</p><p>ANOVA estimates, F- and P-values of the relative proportion of the explained variation accounted for by biotic (vs abiotic) variables in redundancy analyses (RDA) of graminoid and forb species composition in grassland sites along temperature and precipitation gradients in southern Norway.</p

Vandvik_OIKOS

The vegetation data (Vandvik_Veg) was collected in grassland vegetation the SeedClim field sites in western Norway, in August 2008. The seed bank data (Vandvik_SB) was collected in a greenhouse experiment during 2009/2010

Table_1_Plastic Population Effects and Conservative Leaf Traits in a Reciprocal Transplant Experiment Simulating Climate Warming in the Himalayas.DOCX

<p>Climate warming poses considerable challenges for alpine plant species, especially for competitively inferior ones with resource-conservative adaptations to cold climates. The Himalayas are warming at rates considerably faster than the global average, so it is particularly important to assess how and through which mechanisms alpine plant species are affected there. We employed a demographic approach in a climate change experiment, where vegetation turfs were transplanted reciprocally between the central parts of the study species’ (Viola biflora L. var. rockiana) range and the warmer range margin, with a temperature difference of ca. 1°C. In addition, turfs were also transplanted outside the range to warmer habitats, simulating two different scenarios of climate warming, +1 and +4°C. Transplanting to warmer sites negatively impacted population growth rates (λ), survival and clonality, but did not affect growth and fecundity, while the productivity of the plant community increased. The reciprocal transplants to the colder habitat showed the opposite effects, for both V. biflora and the plant community, indicating plastic responses of the study species, driven by changes in plant–plant competition. However, the leaf traits underlying the modeled population growth rates were origin-site specific and not affected by the climate-change treatments over the study period, suggesting local adaptation of growth form to competition in the warmer range margin, and to climate adversity in the colder range center. The transplants outside the present species’ range showed consistently stronger reductions in population growth rate and survival, with mortality of 90–100% in the +4°C treatment. This illustrates that climatic changes beyond species’ present climatic ranges pose a serious risk for range contraction and extinction for Himalayan alpine species in the near future. As V. biflora seems mostly limited by competition under warming, its persistence in a future climate may become increasingly dependent on keeping competitive effects from the surrounding community low, for instance by management interventions like grazing and mowing.</p