| 1. |
- Byström, Roberth, 1971-
(författare)
-
SOD1´s Law : An Investigation of ALS Provoking Properties in SOD1
- 2009
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Proteins are the most important molecules in the cell since they take care of most of the biological functions which resemble life. To ensure that everything is working properly the cell has a rigorous control system to monitor the proper function of its proteins and sends old or dysfunctional proteins for degradation. Unfortunately, this system sometimes fails and the once so vital proteins start to misbehave or to accumulate and in the worst case scenario these undesired processes cause the death of their host. One example is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS); a progressive and always fatal neurodegenerative disorder that is proposed to derive from accumulation of aberrant proteins. Over 140 mutations in the human gene encoding the cytosolic homodimeric enzyme Cu/Zn-Superoxide Dismutase (SOD1) are linked to ALS. The key event in SOD1 associated ALS seems to be the pathological formation of toxic protein aggregates as a result of initially unfolded or partly structured SOD1-mutants. Here, we have compared the folding behaviour of a set of ALS associated SOD1 mutants. Based on our findings we propose that SOD1 mediated ALS can be triggered by a decrease in protein stability but also by mutations which reduce the net charge of the protein. Both findings are in good agreement with the hypothesis for protein aggregation. SOD1 has also been found to be able to interact with mitochondrial membranes and SOD1 inclusions have been detected in the inter-membrane space of mitochondria originating from the spinal cord. The obvious question then arose; does the misfolding and aggregation of SOD1 involve erroneous interactions with membranes? Here, we could show that there is an electrostatically driven interaction between the reduced apo SOD1 protein including ALS associated SOD1-mutants and charged lipid membrane surfaces. This association process changes the secondary structures of these mutants in a way quite different from the situation found in membrane free aqueous environment. However, the result show that mutants interact with charged lipid vesicles to lesser extent than wildtype SOD1. This opposes the correlation between decreased SOD1 stability and disease progression. We therefore suggest that the observed interaction is not a primary cause in the ALS mechanism.
|
|
| 2. |
- Moparthi, Satish Babu
(författare)
-
Biophysical studies of protein folding upon interaction with molecular chaperones
- 2009
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Proteins are biological macromolecules that serve all functions in cells. Every protein consists of a sequence of amino acids that is folded into a three‐dimensional structure to maintain the unique information it contains and to allow the protein to perform its specific actions. Improper folding caused by mutations in the amino acid sequence or environmental stress can lead to protein aggregation and ultimately to protein conformational disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and other dreadful diseases. Nature has developed special classes of protein guards called foldases and chaperones that can increase folding efficiency in the crowded intracellular milieu by preventing protein aggregation. The present research was aimed to elucidate how chaperones and foldases interact with their target proteins during folding. Special attention was focused on refolding kinetics and dynamic remodulation of site‐specific labeled cysteine variants of the protein human carbonic anhydrase (HCA II) upon interaction with the PPIase cyclophilin18 (Cyp18) and the chaperonin GroEL. Part of the work also compared properties of the group I chaperonin GroEL and the group II chaperonin TRiC, considering how they mediate structural alterations uponinteraction with the cytoskeletal target protein β‐actin. These interactions were studied by various fluorescence techniques, including fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and fluorescence anisotropy.Refolding of HCA II is an extremely complicated process that involves very fast and slow folding events, and research has shown that Cyp18 enhances the slow rate‐limiting cistrans proline isomerization steps during the refolding process. Furthermore, the active‐site mutant Cyp18R55A has been reported to posses only about 1% catalytic efficiency when acting on short chromogenic peptide substrates. However, we found that Cyp18R55A is as efficient as the wild‐type Cyp18 in accelerating HCA II refolding. We also noted that Cyp18 enhanced the final yield of the severely destabilized HCA IIH107N, and HCA IIH107F mutants by rescuing transient molten globule intermediates from misfolding as a result of condensation of hydrophobic patches at very early stages of the folding process. These findings led to the conclusion that Arg 55, located in the active site of Cyp18, is not required for prolyl cistrans isomerization of protein substrates, and that Cyp18 can function as both a folding catalyst and a chaperone during HCA II folding.Studies have demonstrated that sequestering of protein substrates by the chaperonin GroEL alone results in binding‐induced unfolding of aggregation‐prone molten globule intermediates. It was previously assumed that the co‐chaperonin GroES does not play an independent role in folding. However, based on FRET measurements, we found that GroEL alone stretches the protein substrate as an early event, and also that GroES alone can transiently remodulate the structure of the molten globule intermediate during the refolding process. In addition, GroES acts in i concert with GroEL to exert additive transient stretchng effects on the protein core, and it reverses the unfoldase activity of the GroEL termini, leading to compaction of the structure to attain the more constrained native state.Earlier investigations have shown that partially folded β‐actin binds to both GroEL and the TRiC chaperonin. However, only TRiC guides correct folding of β‐actin, whereas the GroEL–β‐actin interaction is non‐productive. Homo‐FRET measurements on β‐actin mutants labeled with fluorescein during interaction with GroEL and TRiC indicated that interplay with both the chaperonins lead to binding‐induced unfolding and dynamic remodulation of β‐actin. More specifically, the interaction with TRiC resulted in considerable expansion of the entrance of the ATP‐binding cleft of β‐actin by effecting specific modulation of the β‐actin sub‐domains followed by the formation of a compressed state (native‐like) during release from TriC. Conformational rearrangements of β‐actin by GroEL on the other and were ore modest. β‐actin remained rather compact in the complex and consequently did not lead to the native‐like state ven in the encapsulated cis‐cavity when capped by GroES.
|
|
| 3. |
- Urbanaviciute, Indre, 1990-
(författare)
-
Multifunctional Supramolecular Organic Ferroelectrics
- 2019
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Ferroelectric materials are known and valued for their multifunctionality arising from the possibility to perturb the remnant ferroelectric polarization by electric field, temperature and/or mechanical stimuli. While inorganic ferroelectrics dominate the current market, their organic counterparts may provide highly desired properties like eco-friendliness, easy processability and flexibility, concomitantly opening unique opportunities to combine multiple functionalities into a single compound that facilitates unprecedented device concepts and designs. Supramolecular organic ferroelectrics of columnar discotic type, that are the topic of this thesis, offer additional advantages related to their strong hierarchical self-assembly and easy tunability by molecular structure modifications, allowing optimization of ferroelectric characteristics and their hybridization with, e.g., semiconductivity. This not only leads to textbook ferroelectric materials that can be used as model systems to understand the general behaviour of ferroics, but also gives rise to previously unobserved effects stemming from the interplay of different functionalities.The core-shell structure of the molecules under the scope enables multiple pathways forrational design by molecular structure modification. This was firstly pursued via peripheral tail engineering on an archetypal self-assembling ferroelectric trialkylbenzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (BTA). We found that by shortening the alkyl chain length all the ferroelectric properties can be continuously tuned. In particular, changing the tail from C18H37 to C6H13causes an increase in depolarization activation energy (~0.8 eV to ~1.55 eV), coercive field(~25 V/μm to ~50 V/μm) and remnant polarization (~20 mC/m2 to ~60 mC/m2). The combination of the mentioned characteristics resulted in a record polarization retention time of close to 3 months at room temperature for capacitor devices of the material having the shortest alkyl chain – BTA-C6, which at the time of writing was one of the best results for liquid-crystalline ferroelectrics.Taking one step further, we experimentally demonstrated how introduction of branched-tailsubstituents results in materials with a wide operating temperature range and a data retention time of more than 10 years in thin-film solution-processed capacitor devices already atelevated temperatures with no measurable depolarization at room temperature. The observed differences between linear- and branched-tail compounds were analysed using density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We concluded that morphological factors like improved packing quality and reduced disorder, rather than electrostatic interactions or intra/inter-columnar steric hindrance, underlay the superior properties of the branched-tailed BTAs. Synergistic effects upon blending of compounds with branched and linear sidechains were shown to further improve the materials’ characteristics.Exploiting the excellent ferroelectric performance and the well-defined nanostructure of BTAs, we experimentally determined the Preisach (hysteron) distribution of BTA and confronted it to the one obtained for the semi-crystalline P(VDF:TrFE). This allowed to elucidate how the broadening of the Preisach distribution relates to the materials’ morphology. We further connected the experimental Preisach distribution to the corresponding microscopic switching kinetics. We argue that the combination of the two underlays the macroscopic dispersive switching kinetics as commonly observed for practical ferroelectrics. These insights lead to guidelines for further advancement of ferroelectric materials both for conventional and multi-bit data storage applications.Although having strong differences in the Preisach distribution, BTA and P(VDF:TrFE) both demonstrate negative piezoelectricity – a rare anomalous phenomenon which is characteristic to two-phased materials and has never been observed in small-molecular ferroelectrics. We measured a pronounced negative piezoelectric effect in a whole family of BTAs and revealed its tunability by mesogenic tail substitution and structural disorder. While the large- and small-signal strain in highly ordered thin-film BTA capacitor devices are dominated by intrinsic contributions and originates from piezostriction, rising disorder introduces additional extrinsic factors that boost the large-signal d33 up to −20 pm/V in short-tailed molecules. Interestingly, homologues with longer mesogenic tails show a large-signal electromechanical response that is dominated by the quadratic Maxwell strain with significant mechanical softening upon polarization switching, whereas the small-signal strain remains piezostrictive. Molecular dynamics and DFT calculations both predict a positive d33 for defect-free BTA stacks. Hence, the measured negative macroscopic d33 is attributed to the presence of structural defects that enable the dimensional effect to dominate the piezoelectric response of BTA thin films.The true multifunctionality of supramolecular discotics manifests when large semiconducting cores surrounded by field-switchable strongly polar moieties are introduced in the structure. We showed how the combination of switchable dipolar side groups and the semiconducting core of the newly synthetized C3-symmetric benzotristhiophene molecule (BTTTA) leads to an ordered columnar material showing continuous tunability from injection- to bulk-limited conductivity modulation. Both these resistive switching mechanisms may lead to the next-generation high-density non-volatile rewritable memory devices with high on/off ratios and non-destructive data readout – the element that has been desperately sought after to enablefully organic flexible electronics.
|
|
| 4. |
- Ahl, Ing-Marie, 1974-
(författare)
-
Protein Engineering of Extracellular Superoxide Dismutase : Characterization of Binding to Heparin and Cellular Surfaces
- 2010
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Accumulating evidence indicates that oxygen free radicals are involved in many diseases and pathological conditions, such as aging, inflammation, reperfusion damage of ischemic tissue and various cardiovascular diseases. Extracellular superoxide dismutase (ECSOD) thus plays a major role in the maintenance of cells by providing protection against these toxic substances in the extracellular space. Various animal studies have shown that ECSOD has the ability to protect against many of these disorders, and interest has therefore evolved in the potential therapeutic use of the enzyme.However, despite strenuous efforts, large-scale production of the enzyme has not been achieved. To overcome this problem, a mimic of the enzyme, PseudoECSOD, has previouslybeen constructed. This chimera is easy to produce in large amounts and has all the structural, enzymatic and heparin-binding characteristics of ECSOD, making it a potential substitute for ECSOD in therapeutic situations. However, the copper content of PseudoECSOD has been shown to be rather low, and since the copper ion is very important for the catalytic function of the enzyme, a production system that utilizes a copper chaperone for proper insertion of copper into the active site of the enzyme was constructed. The results show that the copper content of PseudoECSOD produced by this system is close to 100 %.In order to use PseudoECSOD therapeutically, further investigations of its binding capability and protective properties are needed. Therefore, the binding of ECSOD and PseudoECSOD to heparin was investigated using isothermal titration calorimetry. The results show that although some purely ionic interactions are important for the binding between ECSOD and heparin, there is also a substantial contribution from non-ionic interactions. The investigation also showed that the C-terminal domain is the only part of ECSOD that contributes to productive binding, and that the binding of PseudoECSOD and ECSOD to heparin is similar.In addition, analysis of mutant proteins strongly indicated that the amino acids R210, K211 and R214 are important for optimal binding of ECSOD to heparin, accounting for about 30 % of the total binding energy. The structural placement of these amino acids in an α-helix also confirms the hypothesis postulated by Margalit et al., that a common structural motif for heparin-binding proteins may be two positively charged amino acids at a distance of approximately 20 Å in the 3D-structure, facing opposite directions of a α-helix. The importance of these residues was also confirmed by analysis of a phage display library of the C-terminal domain of ECSOD.The binding of PseudoECSOD to heparan sulfate on cell surfaces of two different cell types, HepG2 and endothelial cells, was also investigated. The results clearly show that PseudoECSOD binds to these cells in a very similar manner to ECSOD. To investigate the protective properties of PseudoECSOD against ischemia-reperfusion injuries, an isolated rabbit heart model was used. The results indicate that the enzyme has a protective effect. However, more experiments using the rabbit heart and other animal models are needed to identify the optimal dose for protective purposes. The protective properties of PseudoECSOD in human tissue should also be thoroughly investigated.In summary, the findings in these studies, together with earlier results showing the close resemblance of PseudoECSOD to ECSOD in structural, enzymatic and heparin-binding properties, further support the proposition that PseudoECSOD may be a good substitute for ECSOD to use in therapeutic interventions.
|
|
| 5. |
- Fahlkrans, Johan, 1980-
(författare)
-
Effects of manufacturing chain on mechanical performance : Study on heat treatment of powertrain components
- 2015
-
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The increasing demands for lightweight designs with high strength call for improved manufacturing processes regarding heat treatment of steel. The manufacturing process has considerable potential to improve the mechanical performance and to obtain more reliable results with less variation.The goal of this thesis is to establish new knowledge regarding improved manufacturing processes in industrial heat treatment applications. Three research questions with associated hypotheses are formulated. Process experiments, evaluation of the mechanical performance, and modelling of the fatigue behaviour assist in answering the questions.The gas quenching procedure following low-pressure carburising differs from the conventional procedure of gas carburising and oil quenching. It is shown that the introduction of a holding time during the low-temperature part of the quench has a positive effect on mechanical properties, with some 20 percent increase in fatigue strength. This is attributed to increased compressive surface residual stress and stabilisation of austenite.Tempering is a common manufacturing process step following hardening in order to increase the toughness of the steel. However, the research shows that the higher hardness from eliminating tempering from the manufacturing process is beneficial for contact fatigue resistance. The untempered steel showed not only less contact fatigue damage but also a different contact fatigue mechanism.Straightening of elongated components is made after heat treatment in order to compensate for distortions. The research shows that straightening of induction hardened shafts may lead to lowering of the fatigue strength of up to 20 percent. A fracture mechanics based model is developed to estimate the effects of straightening on fatigue strength.
|
|
| 6. |
- Helmfors, Linda, 1983-
(författare)
-
Understanding the dual nature of lysozyme: part villain – part hero : A Drosophila melanogaster model of lysozyme amyloidosis
- 2014
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Amyloid proteins are a distinct class of proteins that can misfold into β-sheet rich structures that later mature to form the characteristic species known as amyloid fibrils, and accumulate in tissues in the human body. The misfolding event is often caused by mutations (or outer factors such as changes in pH) that destabilize the native protein structure. The mature amyloid fibrils were initially believed to be associated with diseases connected to protein misfolding such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease, transthyretin amyloidosis and lysozyme amyloidosis. However, now it is known that many different factors are involved in these diseases such as failure in protein clearance, lysosomal dysfunction and formation of intermediate misfolded protein species, which possess cytotoxic properties, preceding the formation of mature fibrils.In this thesis the amyloidogenic protein lysozyme has been examined in vivo by using Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) as a model organism. The effects of over-expressing human lysozyme and amyloidogenic variants in Drosophila have been investigated both in the absence and presence of the serum amyloid P component (SAP), a protein known to interact with amyloid species. In addition, the role of lysozyme in AD has been investigated by co-expressing human lysozyme and amyloid β in Drosophila.The lysozyme protein is an enzyme naturally found in bodily fluids such as tears, breast milk and saliva. It is engaged in the body’s defense and acts by hydrolyzing the cell wall of invading bacteria. Certain disease-associated point mutations in the gene encoding lysozyme destabilize the protein and cause it to misfold which results in systemic amyloidosis. To investigate the in vivo misfolding behavior of lysozyme we developed and established a Drosophila model of lysozyme amyloidosis. SAP is commonly found attached to amyloid deposits in the body; however, the role of SAP in amyloid diseases is unknown. To investigate the effect of SAP in lysozyme misfolding, these two proteins were co-expressed in Drosophila.The amyloid β peptide is involved in AD, building up the plaques found in AD patient brains. These plaques trigger neuroinflammation and since lysozyme is upregulated during various inflammation conditions, a possible role of lysozyme in AD was investigated by overexpressing lysozyme in a Drosophila model of AD. Interaction between lysozyme and the amyloid β protein was also studied by biophysical measurements.During my work with this thesis, the dual nature of lysozyme emerged; on the one hand a villain, twisted by mutations, causing the lysozyme amyloidosis disease. On the other hand a hero, delaying the toxicity and maybe the neurological damage caused by the amyloid β peptide.
|
|
| 7. |
- Rezine, Othmane, 1982-
(författare)
-
Verification of networks of communicating processes : Reachability problems and decidability issues
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Computer systems are used in almost all aspects of our lives and our dependency on them keeps on increasing. When computer systems are used to handle critical tasks, any software failure can cause severe human and/or material losses. Therefore, for such applications, it is important to detect software errors at an early stage of software development. Furthermore, the growing use of concurrent and distributed programs exponentially increases the complexity of computer systems, making the problem of detecting software errors even harder (if not impossible). This calls for defining systematic and efficient techniques to evaluate the safety and the correctness of programs. The aim of Model-Checking is to analyze automatically whether a given program satisfies its specification. Early applications of Model-Checking were restricted to systems whose behaviors can be captured by finite graphs, so called finite-state systems. Since many computer systems cannot be modeled as finite-state machines, there has been a growing interest in extending the applicability of Model-Checking to infinite-state systems.The goal of this thesis is to extend the applicability of Model Checking for three instances of infinite-state systems: Ad-Hoc Networks, Dynamic Register Automata and Multi Pushdown Systems. Each one of these instances models challenging types of networks of communicating processes. In both Ad-Hoc Networks and Dynamic Register Automata, communication is carried through message passing. In each type of network, a graph topology models the communication links between processes in the network. The graph topology is static in the case of Ad-Hoc Networks while it is dynamic in the case of Dynamic Register Automata. The number of processes in both types of networks is unbounded. Finally, we consider Multi Pushdown Systems, a model used to study the behaviors of concurrent programs composed of sequential recursive sequential programs communicating through a shared memory.
|
|
| 8. |
- Zhang, Wei
(författare)
-
Directed Evolution of Glutathione Transferases with Altered Substrate Selectivity Profiles : A Laboratory Evolution Study Shedding Light on the Multidimensional Nature of Epistasis
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Directed evolution is generally regarded as a useful approach in protein engineering. By subjecting members of a mutant library to the power of Darwinian evolution, desired protein properties are obtained. Numerous reports have appeared in the literature showing the success of tailoring proteins for various applications by this method. Is it a one-way track that protein practitioners can only learn from nature to enable more efficient protein engineering? A structure-and-mechanism-based approach, supplemented with the use of reduced amino acid alphabets, was proposed as a general means for semi-rational enzyme engineering. Using human GST A2-2*E, the most active human enzyme in the bioactivation of azathioprine, as a parental enzyme to test this approach, a L107G/L108D/F222H triple-point mutant of GST A2-2*E (thereafter designated as GDH) was discovered with 70-fold increased activity, approaching the upper limit of specific activity of the GST scaffold. The approach was further experimentally verified to be more successful than intuitively choosing active-site residues in proximity to the bound substrate for the improvement of enzyme performance. By constructing all intermediates along all putative mutational paths leading from GST A2-2*E to mutant GDH and assaying them with nine alternative substrates, the fitness landscapes were found to be “rugged” in differential fashions in substrate-activity space. The multidimensional fitness landscapes stemming from functional promiscuity can lead to alternative outcomes with enzymes optimized for other features than the selectable markers that were relevant at the origin of the evolutionary process. The results in this thesis suggest that in this manner an evolutionary response to changing environmental conditions can readily be mounted. In summary, the thesis demonstrates the attractive features of the structure-and-mechanism-based semi-rational directed evolution approach for optimizing enzyme performance. Moreover, the results gained from the studies show that laboratory evolution may refine our understanding of evolutionary process in nature.
|
|
| 9. |
- Zhu, Yunyun
(författare)
-
Caches, Transactions and Memories : Models, Coherence and Consistency
- 2018
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Computers have brought us inestimable convenience in recent years. We have become dependent on them and more sensitive to their performance. During the past decades, we have been trying to improve program efficiency. The invention of multi-core systems is regarded as the new era of boosting performance of computer programs. When we focus on improving program efficiency, we also need to pay attention to program correctness. In some specific areas, errors, aka bugs, of programs can cause disastrous consequences. The dominant approach to bug detection is testing, which is conducted by executing a program against test cases generated based on scenarios. A bug is found when the output of the program does not match the expected output defined in the test case. One main drawback of testing is that it only shows the presence of bugs. An alternative approach is formal verification, which is a method that can exhaustively analyze the program executions and therefore show the absence of bugs. This thesis focuses on one of the main areas of formal verification - model checking. Model checking analyzes a mathematical model extracted from a program and automatically checks if it satisfies the desired properties.In this thesis, we first consider verifying safety and liveness properties for transactional memories. In particular, we consider the FlexTM hybrid transactional memory. We build a formal model of FlexTM, and apply a small model theorem that restricts the number of threads and variables in the model. This allows us to reduce the problem of verifying safety and liveness properties of FlexTM to checking language inclusion between the automata of FlexTM and a reference transactional memory. Second, we present a method for automatic verification of cache coherence protocols in the presence of transactional memories. We build a formal model containing a filter that represents the conflict resolution strategies of the transactional memory. We also apply a small model theorem which limits the number of cache lines of the protocol. To check cache coherence, we extend a backward reachability algorithm for infinite state systems, by removing the traces not allowed by the filter. Using this technique, we verify two cache protocols under different transactional memories respectively and conclude that they both maintain coherence. Finally, we consider verification of safety properties of programs running over Self-Invalidate and Self-Downgrade cache coherence protocols. To that end, we define a formal model which captures the weak memory model induced by such protocols. We design an algorithm for inserting a set of optimal fences in the program, which guarantees the safety property while still maintaining the efficiency of a maximal degree.
|
|
| 10. |
- Öberg, Lisa, 1958-
(författare)
-
Treeline dynamics in short and long term perspectives : observational and historical evidence from the southern Swedish Scandes
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Treelines in high-mountain regions are constrained by heat deficiency, although the working mechanisms are still not entirely understood. Observational and paleoecological studies on treeline performance may contribute to increased understanding of the treeline phenomenon in general. The present thesis addresses elevational shifts of alpine treelines in the Swedish Scandes. By various analytical tools, the studies embrace widely different temporal scales.The concept treeline refers to the elevation (m a.s.l.) at a specific site of the upper individual tree of a certain tree species, at least 2 m tall. All the principal tree species in the Scandes are concerned, i.e. mountain birch (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii), Norway spruce (Picea abies) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris).Paper I deals with regional treeline dynamics at more than 100 sites over the past 100 years. Concurrent with temperature rise by c. 1.4 °C over the same period, maximum treeline advances of all species amount to about 200 m. Thus, under ideal conditions, treelines respond in close equilibrium with air temperature evolution. However, over most parts of the landscape, treeline upshifts have been much smaller than 200 m, which relates to the combined action of geomorphology, wind, snow distribution and soil depth. After 1975, the birch has lost its role as the most rapidly advancing tree species, being superseded by pine and spruce.Paper II is a short-term (2005/2007-2010/2011) study of mountain birch treeline performance along a regional maritimity-continentality gradient. Upshift by 3.0 yr-1 in the maritime part of the gradient contrasts to retreat by 0.4 m yr-1 in the continental part. In the latter area, earlier and more complete melting of late-lying snow patches has seemingly progressed to a state when soil drought sets back the vigour of existing birches and precludes sexual regeneration and upslope advance of the treeline. In the maritime area, extensive and deep snow packs still exist above the treeline and constrain its position, although some release is taking place in the current warm climate.Paper III explores treeline change by phenotypic transformation of old-established stunted and prostrate spruce individuals (krummholz) growing high above the treeline and is based on analyses of radiocarbon-dated megafossils, preserved in the soil underneath clonal groups of spruce. Living spruce clones, which in some cases may date back to the early Holocene (9500 cal. yr BP), suggests that spruce immigrated from “cryptic” ice age refugia much closer to Scandinavia than conventionally thought. As the krummholz form presupposes open and windy habitats, it is inferred that permanently open spots prevailed in the high-mountain landscape even during periods when treelines in general were much higher than today.Paper IV reports radiocarbon dates of wood samples, retrieved from newly exposed glacier forefields at three main sites, located high above the modern treelines and embracing the entire Swedish Scandes. It appears that pine colonized early emerging nunataks already during the Late Glacial. Around 9600-9500 cal. yr BP a first massive wave of tree establishment, birch and pine, took place in “empty” glacier cirques. Both species grew 400-600 m above their present day treeline position and accordingly, the summer temperatures may have been 3.5 °C warmer than present (uncorrected for land uplift). During the entire interval 9600 to 4400 cal. yr BP, birch prospered 100-150 m above the uppermost pines. In response to Neoglacial cooling, treelines of both birch and pine descended until their final disappearance from the record 4400 and 5900 cal. yr BP, respectively. Thereafter, these habitats experienced increased snow accumulation and glacier inception.
|
|
