Glob Chang Biol 23:755–766Īrcher SR, Anderson EM, Predick KI, Schwinning S, Steidl RJ, Woods SR (2017) Woody plant encroachment: causes and consequences. J Torrey Bot Soc 133:626–647Īnisfeld S, Cooper K, Kemp A (2017) Upslope development of a tidal marsh as a function of upland land use. Proc Natl Acad Sci 95:14839–14842Īnderson RC (2006) Evolution and origin of the central grassland of North America: climate, fire, and mammalian grazers. Limnol Oceanogr 29:862–878Īllen CD, Breshears DD (1998) Drought-induced shift of a forest–woodland ecotone: rapid landscape response to climate variation. Future work should consider the rate and feedback mechanisms of ecotone movement and function at additional ecotones.Ībbott MR, Denman KL, Powell TM, Richerson PJ, Richards RC, Goldman CR (1984) Mixing and the dynamics of the deep chlorophyll maximum in Lake Tahoe. Conclusionĭirectional climate change increases directional movement in multiple types of ecotone.

Climate changes additionally accelerate pre-existing directional migration of ecotones through changes to abiotic gradients. Specifically, unidirectional changes in climate patterns disrupt dynamic equilibria at shifting ecosystem boundaries, thereby facilitating unidirectional movement at the previously shifting boundaries. Shifts in local and global climate drive changes in ecotone patterns, increasing directional ecotone movement at both shifting and directional ecotones. In three ecosystem case studies, we examine the effects of climate change on landscape-scale ecotone movement across the marine, terrestrial, and interfacing environments. The purpose of this work was to examine how climate change alters movement dynamics of both directional and shifting ecotones. Dynamic ecotones change position along a boundary over time and can be further categorized as either shifting, where the adjacent ecosystems alternatively drive movement of the ecotone but maintain the same relative location over time, or directional, where one system encroaches into the other and the ecotone moves laterally. Ecotones are boundary zones formed where overlap between neighboring ecosystems creates an intermediate ecosystem with unique ecological characteristics.

Ecotone graph