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

本项目旨在了解高寒地区灌木扩张的机制，以及灌木作为水文介质、生物多样性和生态系统调节剂对灌木主导景观的影响。一些灌木物种可以捕获风吹来的雪，从而通过土壤绝缘和增加融水来促进幼苗的生存。然而，在对气候变化的适应性和可塑性响应允许的情况下，灌丛扩张将对高山生物多样性和生态系统功能产生显著的负面影响。该项目将梳理积雪、补充和适应的相互作用，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游流域水文。

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.