Snow, shrub and climate feedbacks: impacts of shrub expansion in the Australian alpine zone

该项目旨在了解促进高山地区灌木扩展的机制，以及灌木作为水文媒介以及作为生物多样性和生态系统改良剂而以灌木为主的景观的后果。一些灌木树种阻挡风吹雪，从而通过土壤隔热促进幼苗存活，并增加融化的水。然而，如果对气候变化的适应性和可塑性反应允许，灌木扩展将对高山生物多样性和生态系统功能产生重大负面影响。该项目将梳理雪、补充和适应的相互影响，以提供灌木增加的模型，并确定灌木如何改变高山生态系统过程和上层集水区水文。

This project aims to understand the mechanisms promoting shrub expansion in alpine areas and the consequences of a shrub-dominated landscape in terms of shrubs as hydrological mediators and as biodiversity and ecosystem modifiers. Some shrub species trap wind-blown snow, thereby facilitating seedling survival through soil insulation and increases to meltwater. However, if adaptive and plastic responses to climate change allows, shrub expansion will have significant negative impacts on alpine biodiversity and ecosystem function. This project will tease apart the interacting effects of snow, recruitment and adaptation to provide models of shrub increase and determine how shrubs modify alpine ecosystem processes and upper catchment hydrology.