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Globally, the treeline parallels the snowline, a boundary purely determined by physics above which all precipitation falls as snow. |
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1 - The latitudinal position of treeline and snowline (Körner 2003). |
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True climatic treelines are found at similar growing season mean temperatures of between 5 °C and 7 °C around the globe, suggesting a common thermal limit of tree growth (see Fig. 2). |
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2 - Temperatures at climatic high elevation treelines for various latitudes (sites for which the seasonal course of temperature was available). |
3 - Climatic factors other than temperature may modulate the local treeline position to some degree (e.g. ±100 m of elevation), but are unable to explain the global treeline phenomenon. |
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29 August 2011 |
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