Tree Sapling Responses to 10 Years of Experimental Manipulation of Temperature, Nutrient Availability, and Shrub Cover at the Pyrenean Treeline.

Treelines are sensitive to environmental changes, but few studies provide a mechanistic approach to understand treeline dynamics based on field experiments. The aim of this study was to determine how changes in the abiotic and/or biotic conditions associated with global change affect the performance of tree seedlings (later saplings) at the treeline in a 10-year experiment. A fully factorial experiment in the Central Pyrenees was initiated in autumn 2006; 192 seedlings were transplanted into microplots with contrasting environmental conditions of (1) increased vs.