The last 50 years of climate-induced melting of the Maliy Aktru glacier (Altai Mountains, Russia) revealed in a primary ecological succession

In this article, we report and discuss the results obtained from a survey of plants, microorganisms (bacteria and fungi), and soil elements along a chronosequence in the first 600 m of the Maliy Aktru glacier's forefront (Altai Mountains, Russia). Many glaciers of the world show effects of climate change. Nonetheless, except for some local reports, the ecological effects of deglaciation have been poorly studied and have not been quantitatively assessed in the Altai Mountains. Here, we studied the ecological changes of plants, fungi, bacteria, and soil elements that take the form of a primary ecological succession and that took place over the deglaciated soil of the Maliy Aktru glacier during the last 50 year. According to our measurements, the glacier lost about 12 m per year during the last 50 years. Plant succession shows clear signs of changes along the incremental distance from the glacier forefront. The analysis of the plant α‐ and β‐diversity confirmed an expected increase of them...本研究报道并讨论了沿俄罗斯阿尔泰山脉马里亚克特鲁冰川（Maliy Aktru Glacier）前缘前600米范围内的时间序列样带（chronosequence），对植物、微生物（细菌与真菌）及土壤组分开展调查所获得的研究结果。全球诸多冰川均已显现气候变化的影响。然而，除少量局部研究外，阿尔泰山脉地区冰退（deglaciation）的生态效应尚未得到充分研究，也未开展定量评估。本研究针对过去50年间马里亚克特鲁冰川消退后裸露土壤上发生的原生生态演替（primary ecological succession）过程，探究了植物、真菌、细菌及土壤组分的生态变化特征。经实测，该冰川在过去50年间年均退缩约12米。植物演替随距冰川前缘距离的递增呈现出显著的变化特征。针对植物α多样性（α-diversity）与β多样性（β-diversity）的分析结果证实了其预期的上升趋势……