Introduction

Timber line represents the most prominent ecotone in mountainous and arctic regions. It is characterized by the transition from closed forest to the most advanced solitary trees (i.e., timber line), to single tree islands (i.e., treeline), and eventually to unforested vegetation. This biological boundary can vary in width between tens of meters and many kilometers. In northern Europe it is formed by deciduous trees (Betula, Alnus, Populus), whereas coniferous trees (Pinus, Picea, Larix) form treeline in the Alps, northern North America and Eurasia.

Treeline is primarily related to cold temperatures but a complex set of different climatic factors, as well as the specific adaptation of trees, actually defines the forest limit (e.g., Tranquillini, 1979). This is evident from the decrease in altitude of treeline from subtropical to arctic regions and, on a smaller scale, by the higher forest limit on southern slopes compared to northern slopes (Ellenberg, 1986). In the Alps, timber line represents the transition between the subalpine and the alpine belts (Ozenda, 1985; Ellenberg, 1986). The lower boundary of the alpine belt, however, is difficult to locate as human impact, grazing and climatic oscillations have lowered natural tree limit by several hundred meters in the last millennia (e.g., Lang, 1994; Tinner et al., 1996).

In the north, physical and biotic features are sufficiently distinct to unequivocally separate ‘arctic’ from ‘boreal’ regions. However, great disparity exists among definitions as to where the Boreal region ends and the Arctic region begins (Larsen, 1989).