Environment Futures Research Institute and School of Environment and Sciences, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.
Environment Futures Research Institute and School of Environment and Sciences, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Dec 15;748:141344. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141344. Epub 2020 Aug 2.
Climate change is causing extensive alterations to ecosystems globally, with some more vulnerable than others. Alpine ecosystems, characterised by low-temperatures and cryophilic vegetation, provide ecosystems services for billions of people but are considered among the most susceptible to climate change. Therefore, it is timely to review research on climate change on alpine vegetation including assessing trends, topics, themes and gaps. Using a multicomponent bibliometric approach, we extracted bibliometric metadata from 3143 publications identified by searching titles, keywords and abstracts for research on 'climate change' and 'alpine vegetation' from Scopus and Web of Science. While primarily focusing on 'alpine vegetation', some literature that also assessed vegetation below the treeline was captured. There has been an exponential increase in research over 50 years, greater engagement and diversification in who does research, and where it is published and conducted, with increasing focus beyond Europe, particularly in China. Content analysis of titles, keywords and abstracts revealed that most of the research has focused on alpine grasslands but there have been relatively few publications that examine specialist vegetation communities such as snowbeds, subnival vegetation and fellfields. Important themes emerged from analysis of keywords, including treelines and vegetation dynamics, biodiversity, the Tibetan Plateau as well as grasslands and meadows. Traditional ecological monitoring techniques were important early on, but remote sensing has become the primary method for assessment. A key book on alpine plants, the IPCC reports and a few papers in leading journals underpin much of the research. Overall, research on this topic is increasing, with new methods and directions but thematic and geographical gaps remain particularly for research on extreme climatic events, and research in South America, in part due to limited capacity for research on these rare but valuable ecosystems.
气候变化正在全球范围内对生态系统造成广泛影响，有些生态系统比其他生态系统更为脆弱。高山生态系统以低温和耐寒植被为特征，为数以亿计的人提供生态系统服务，但被认为是最易受气候变化影响的生态系统之一。因此，及时审查有关高山植被的气候变化研究，包括评估趋势、主题、主题和差距，是非常重要的。我们使用多组分文献计量学方法，从 Scopus 和 Web of Science 中搜索标题、关键词和摘要，提取了 3143 篇关于“气候变化”和“高山植被”的研究的文献计量元数据。虽然主要关注“高山植被”，但也捕捉到了一些也评估林线以下植被的文献。50 多年来，研究呈指数级增长，研究人员的参与度和多样性有所提高，研究地点和出版物也有所增加，研究重点已超出欧洲，特别是在中国。对标题、关键词和摘要的内容分析表明，大部分研究都集中在高山草原上，但相对较少的出版物研究了雪床、亚高山植被和高山石漠化等专业植被群落。关键词分析中出现了一些重要主题，包括林线和植被动态、生物多样性、青藏高原以及草原和草地。传统的生态监测技术在早期很重要，但遥感已成为评估的主要方法。一本关于高山植物的重要书籍、IPCC 报告以及一些领先期刊上的几篇论文为大部分研究提供了依据。总的来说，这个主题的研究正在增加，有新的方法和方向，但主题和地理上的差距仍然存在，特别是在研究极端气候事件和南美洲的研究方面，部分原因是这些稀有但有价值的生态系统的研究能力有限。
