Plant succession and soil development on the foreland of the Morteratsch glacier (Pontresina, Switzerland) : straight forward or chaotic?

Burga, C.A.; Krüsi, Bertil; Egli, M.; Wernli, Michael; Elsener, S.; Ziefle, M.; Fischer, T.; Mavris, C.

Publication type:	Article in scientific journal
Type of review:	Peer review (publication)
Title:	Plant succession and soil development on the foreland of the Morteratsch glacier (Pontresina, Switzerland) : straight forward or chaotic?
Authors:	Burga, C.A. Krüsi, Bertil Egli, M. Wernli, Michael Elsener, S. Ziefle, M. Fischer, T. Mavris, C.
Published in:	Flora
Volume(Issue):	205
Issue:	9
Page(s):	561
Pages to:	576
Issue Date:	2010
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0367-2530
Language:	English
Subjects:	Swiss Alps; Glacier foreland; Primary successsion
Subject (DDC):	333.7: Land, natural recreational areas
Abstract:	As study area we selected the glacier foreland of Morteratsch (approx. 1900–2100m a.s.l.) near Pontresina northwest of the Bernina pass, Upper Engadine, Grisons (Switzerland). The aim of this study is a multimethodological approach using floristic inventories, vegetation and soil mapping of the proglacial area in order to detect crucial parameters controlling plant resettlement in recently deglaciated areas as related to time, local microtopography and soil development. The following methodological approaches were included in this study: (i) floristic relevees along a chronosequence covering 134 years (1857–1990); (ii) dendrochronological data on tree establishment, collected on a grid with a mesh width of 40m in the area, which became icefree between 1857 and 1980; (iii) vegetation mapping; (iv) soil analyses including physical and chemical properties of 11 typical profiles; (v) soil mapping and (vi) data evaluation using GIS. Retreating glaciers successively expose mineral substrates that are colonised within a few years by vascular plants, mosses, lichens and soil biota. With increasing plant cover, also the abundance of soil organic matter increases. At first sight, the largescale patterns of vegetation and soil seem to be driven by the time since deglaciation, whereas the small scale patterns may appear chaotic since they depend on local site conditions, which may change dramatically over short distances. The large-scale pattern seems to develop as follows. About 7 years after deglaciation the first pioneer plants establish themselves and form after an additional 20 years period the Epilobietum fleischeri community, which today dominates the recently deglaciated areas, but may be found in patches more or less on the whole proglacial area. By contrast, the first elements of the short living Oxyrietum digynae community appear approximately 10 years after deglaciation and persist for only about 30 years. Dendrochronology showed that the first European larch and Swiss stone pine trees established themselves 15 and 31 years, respectively, after deglaciation. Surprisingly, on the study area, Swiss stone pine is about twice as frequent as the typical pioneer species European larch (88 stems per ha vs. 45 stems per ha), despite the fact that larch starts earlier and grows faster than Swiss stone pine (annual height increment: 21cm vs. 8 cm). Uptonow, however, nowhere in the 150year old glacier foreland a neartomature larchSwiss stone pine forest can be found. Besides largescale factors such as time since deglaciation, topography and disturbance (floods, rockfalls, avalanches), also smallscale factors such as grain size and water content of the substrate, microrelief and microclimate seem to be crucial for the development of both vegetation and soil. Time since deglaciation and a straightforward singlepathway succession model are clearly not sufficient for understanding the small-scale patterns of succession. A nonlinear succession model with different starting points and different pathways of potential primary successions for the different ecological niches is more promising for describing accurately the spatio-temporal vegetation dynamics of the proglacial area of Morteratsch.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/7381
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	Life Sciences and Facility Management
Organisational Unit:	Institute of Natural Resource Sciences (IUNR)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen Life Sciences und Facility Management

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Burga, C. A., Krüsi, B., Egli, M., Wernli, M., Elsener, S., Ziefle, M., Fischer, T., & Mavris, C. (2010). Plant succession and soil development on the foreland of the Morteratsch glacier (Pontresina, Switzerland) : straight forward or chaotic? Flora, 205(9), 561–576.

Burga, C.A. et al. (2010) ‘Plant succession and soil development on the foreland of the Morteratsch glacier (Pontresina, Switzerland) : straight forward or chaotic?’, Flora, 205(9), pp. 561–576.

C. A. Burga et al., “Plant succession and soil development on the foreland of the Morteratsch glacier (Pontresina, Switzerland) : straight forward or chaotic?,” Flora, vol. 205, no. 9, pp. 561–576, 2010.

BURGA, C.A., Bertil KRÜSI, M. EGLI, Michael WERNLI, S. ELSENER, M. ZIEFLE, T. FISCHER und C. MAVRIS, 2010. Plant succession and soil development on the foreland of the Morteratsch glacier (Pontresina, Switzerland) : straight forward or chaotic? Flora. 2010. Bd. 205, Nr. 9, S. 561–576

Burga, C.A., Bertil Krüsi, M. Egli, Michael Wernli, S. Elsener, M. Ziefle, T. Fischer, and C. Mavris. 2010. “Plant Succession and Soil Development on the Foreland of the Morteratsch Glacier (Pontresina, Switzerland) : Straight Forward or Chaotic?” Flora 205 (9): 561–76.

Burga, C. A., et al. “Plant Succession and Soil Development on the Foreland of the Morteratsch Glacier (Pontresina, Switzerland) : Straight Forward or Chaotic?” Flora, vol. 205, no. 9, 2010, pp. 561–76.