Department Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos-ESCET, C/Tulipán, Móstoles, Madrid, Spain.
Global Change Research Department, Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies (CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain.
Plant Biol (Stuttg). 2018 Jan;20 Suppl 1:50-62. doi: 10.1111/plb.12643. Epub 2017 Nov 24.
Mediterranean mountains are extraordinarily diverse and hold a high proportion of endemic plants, but they are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and most species distribution models project drastic changes in community composition. Retrospective studies and long-term monitoring also highlight that Mediterranean high-mountain plants are suffering severe range contractions. The aim of this work is to review the current knowledge of climate change impacts on the process of plant regeneration by seed in Mediterranean high-mountain plants, by combining available information from observational and experimental studies. We also discuss some processes that may provide resilience against changing environmental conditions and suggest some research priorities for the future. With some exceptions, there is still little evidence of the direct effects of climate change on pollination and reproductive success of Mediterranean high-mountain plants, and most works are observational and/or centred only in the post-dispersal stages (germination and establishment). The great majority of studies agree that the characteristic summer drought and the extreme heatwaves, which are projected to be more intense in the future, are the most limiting factors for the regeneration process. However, there is an urgent need for studies combining elevational gradient approaches with experimental manipulations of temperature and drought to confirm the magnitude and variability of species' responses. There is also limited knowledge about the ability of Mediterranean high-mountain plants to cope with climate change through phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation processes. This could be achieved by performing common garden and reciprocal translocation experiments with species differing in life history traits.
地中海山脉极为多样，拥有很高比例的特有植物，但它们特别容易受到气候变化的影响，而且大多数物种分布模型都预测群落组成将发生剧烈变化。回顾性研究和长期监测还强调，地中海高山植物的分布范围正在严重收缩。本研究的目的是通过结合观测和实验研究的现有信息，综述气候变化对地中海高山植物种子再生过程的影响的现有知识。我们还讨论了一些可能对不断变化的环境条件具有恢复力的过程，并为未来的研究提出了一些重点。除了一些例外，关于气候变化对地中海高山植物传粉和生殖成功率的直接影响的证据仍然很少，而且大多数研究都是观察性的，或者仅集中在散布后阶段（萌发和建立）。绝大多数研究都认为，夏季干旱和极端热浪是限制再生过程的最主要因素，而未来预计这些因素将更加剧烈。然而，迫切需要结合海拔梯度方法和对温度和干旱的实验处理来进行研究，以确认物种响应的幅度和可变性。关于地中海高山植物通过表型可塑性和适应过程来应对气候变化的能力，我们的了解也很有限。可以通过对具有不同生活史特征的物种进行人工栽培和相互移栽实验来实现这一点。
