Use of Silene Acaulis for Dating: The Relationship of Cushion Diameter to Age

Growth-rate curves for Silene acaulis, a pioneer tundra cushion-plant species, were constructed for the Front Range of north-central Colorado by (1) measuring the diameters of 27 plants on moraines at the front of Arapaho Glacier in 1985 and 1987, and (2) measuring the largest cushions on seven historically dated substrates 9 to 82 yr old. Both curves are sigmoidal. Growth begins slowly, accelerates to a maximum rate of 2 to 3 cm yr-1, and then decreases. A lifespan of a century or less makes Silene acaulis unsuitable for dating Little Ice Age moraines in Front Range cirques. The species, however, can provide minimum age estimates for landforms and erosional features younger than 75 to 100 yr.

• Publication year

  1989

• Venue

  Arctic and Alpine Research

• Publication date

  1989-02-01

• Fields of study

  Geography, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.2307/1551520
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Direct Measurement of Lichen Growth in the Central Brooks Range, Alaska, U.S.A., and Its Application to Lichenometric Dating

  1986cited by this paper
• Arapaho Pass: Glacial Geology and Archeology at the Crest of the Colorado Front Range

  1986cited by this paper
• Rocky Mountain National Park: A History

  1985cited by this paper
• Sizes and Growth-Rates of Thalli of the Lichen Rhizocarpon Geographicum on the Moraines of the Glacier De Valsorey, Valais, Switzerland

  1983cited by this paper
• Growth curve of the lichen Rhizocarpon geographicum

  1983cited by this paper
• The Fourth of July Valley: Glacial Geology and Archeology of the Timberline Ecotone

  1982cited by this paper
• Plant Sociology of Alpine Tundra, Trail Ridge, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

  1981cited by this paper
• Plant Sociology of Alpine Tundra, Trail Ridge, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

  1981cited by this paper
• Alpine Vegetation of the Indian Peaks Area, Front Range, Colorado Rocky Mountains

  1980cited by this paper
• Alpine Vegetation of the Indian Peaks Area: Front Range, Colorado Rocky Mountains. Flora et Vegetatio Mundi, Band VII.Vera Komarkova

  1979cited by this paper
• Studies on the growth rates of lichens

  1975cited by this paper
• Geobotanical and Geomorphological Reconnaissance in West Greenland, 1961

  1973cited by this paper
• Island in the Rockies: The History of Grand County, Colorado, to 1930

  1970cited by this paper
• The Moffat Road

  1962cited by this paper
• Competition and Succession on a Rocky Mountain Fellfield

  1956cited by this paper
• Ecology of the Altipiano of Monte Maiella, Italy

  1951cited by this paper
• Plant Succession in Norwegian Lapland

  1936cited by this paper

• The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: Climate change, human activity, and plant diversity

  2025cites this paper
• Cushion plants in the Alps are swarming with invertebrate life

  2025cites this paper
• Growth dynamics and climate sensitivities in alpine cushion plants: insights from Silene acaulis in the Swiss Alps

  2024influential citation
• Fine‐scale alpine plant community assembly: Relative roles of environmental sorting, dispersal processes and species interactions

  2024cites this paper
• Sex-specific facilitation and reproduction of the gynodioecious cushion plant Arenaria polytrichoides on the Himalaya-Hengduan mountains, SW China

  2023cites this paper
• Degeneration of foundation cushion species induced by ecological constraints can cause massive changes in alpine plant communities

  2023cites this paper
• Successional Herbaceous Species Affect Soil Processes in a High-Elevation Alpine Proglacial Chronosequence

  2021cites this paper
• Plant reproduction

  2021cites this paper
• Recruitment of the high elevation cushion plant Arenaria polytrichoides is limited by competition, thus threatened by currently established vegetation

  2020cites this paper
• Female advantage? Investigating female frequency and establishment performance in high-Arctic Silene acaulis

  2019cites this paper
• How cushion communities are maintained in alpine ecosystems: A review and case study on alpine cushion plant reproduction

  2017influential citation
• Solifluction meets vegetation: the role of biogeomorphic feedbacks for turf‐banked solifluction lobe development

  2017cites this paper
• Proxy Dating in Iceland Testing the validity of Silene acaulis as a phytometric proxy

  2016influential citation
• Genetic variation in Silene acaulis increases with population age

  2016cites this paper
• Contrasting Population Dynamics in the Boreo-Alpine Silene acaulis (Caryophyllaceae) at Its Southern Distribution Limit

  2016cites this paper
• Rhizosphere effect of three plant species of environment under periglacial conditions (Majella Massif, central Italy)

  2015influential citation
• Characterization of 14 microsatellite markers for Silene acaulis (Caryophyllaceae)1

  2015cites this paper
• Size class structure, growth rates, and orientation of the central Andean cushion Azorella compacta

  2015influential citation
• Population dynamics and orientation of the central Andean cushion Azorella compacta

  2014influential citation
• Photosynthetic activity in three vascular species of Spitsbergen vegetation during summer season in response to microclimate

  2012cites this paper
• Crecimiento y recubrimiento de Azorella monantha Clos (Apiaceae) en los altos Andes Centrales de Mendoza, Argentina

  2011cites this paper
• Lateral spread of invasive Spartina alterniflora in uncrowded environments

  2011cites this paper
• James Bell Benedict 11 November 1938 to 8 March 2011 In Memoriam

  2011cites this paper
• What happens when alpine plants are exposed to a lowland climate

  2009cites this paper
• Distinguishing colonisation modes from spatial structures in populations of the cushion plant Azorella madreporica in the high-Andes of central Chile

  2008cites this paper
• Allometric relationships and dendroecology of the dwarf shrub Dryas integrifolia near Churchill, subarctic Manitoba

  2007cites this paper
• Evidence for life history changes in high-altitude populations of three perennial forbs.

  2006cites this paper
• Assessing impacts of ecosystem engineers on community organization: a general approach illustrated by effects of a high‐Andean cushion plant

  2006cites this paper
• Composed cushions and coexistence with neighbouring species promoting the persistence of Eritrichium nanum in high alpine vegetation

  2006cites this paper
• Spatial Distributions of Cytoplasmic Types and Sex Expression in Alaskan Populations of Silene acaulis

  2006cites this paper
• ecosystems: do engineer species sharing common features have generalized or idiosyncratic effects on species diversity?

  2006cites this paper
• Impacts of ecosystem engineers on community attributes: effects of cushion plants at different elevations of the Chilean Andes

  2006cites this paper
• Growth Rings in Herbs and Shrubs: life span, age determination and stem anatomy

  2005cites this paper
• Spatial and temporal pattern of a pollinator-transmitted pathogen in a long-lived perennial, Silene acaulis

  2005influential citation
• Microsite requirements, population structure and growth of the cushion plant Azorella compacta in the tropical Chilean Andes

  2004cites this paper
• How long can glacier foreland species live

  2004cites this paper
• Comparative study between morphology and age of Trifolium pallescens in a glacier foreland of the Central Alps

  2002cites this paper
• Population stasis in a high-elevation herbaceous plant under moderate climate warming

  2002cites this paper
• The ecological genetics of gynodioecy in Silene acaulis L. (Caryophyllaceae): spatial sex structure and inbreeding depression

  2002cites this paper
• Life history of the long-lived gynodioecious cushion plant Silene acaulis (Caryophyllaceae), inferred from size-based population projection matrices.

  1998influential citation
• A New Population of Colobanthus quitensis near Arthur Harbor, Antarctica: Correlating Recruitment with Warmer Summer Temperatures

  1997cites this paper
• Age‐related growth and reproduction in Diapensia lapponica, an arctic‐alpine cushion plant

  1997cites this paper
• IMPACT OF A POLLINATOR‐TRANSMITTED DISEASE ON REPRODUCTION IN HEALTHY SILENE ACAULIS

  1997cites this paper
• An individual-based model of alpine plant distributions

  1996cites this paper
• Effect of altitude on the sex ratio in populations of Silene acaulis (Caryophyllaceae)

  1995cites this paper
• EFFECTS OF INTERANNUAL CLIMATE VARIATION ON ABOVEGROUND PHYTOMASS IN ALPINE VEGETATION

  1994cites this paper
• Azorella selago Hook. used to estimate glacier fluctuations and climatic history in the Kerguelen Islands over the last two centuries

  1993cites this paper
• Estimates of Alpine Seed Bank Size in Two Central European and One Scandinavian Subarctic Plant Communities

  1993cites this paper
• Plant species associations in alpine-subnival vegetation patches in the Central Caucasus

  1993cites this paper
• Relationships between Flowering Phenology and Life History Strategies in Tundra Plants

  1993cites this paper
• Relationships between Flowering Phenology and Life History Strategies in

  1993cites this paper
• Plant population patterns in a glacier foreland succession: pioneer herbs and later‐colonizing shrubs

  1993cites this paper
• Dating with Cushion Plants: Establishment of a Silene acaulis Growth Curve in the Canadian Rockies

  1992cites this paper
• Relative Dating Methods Mainly Applied to Glacial and Periglacial Deposits

  1990cites this paper