How poplar trees are changing the environment in their favor

Poplar trees are spreading into new areas and by doing so, changing environmental conditions that make their further expansion even more likely.

University of Nevada Reno/Johanne Albrigtsen

Areas across Interior Alaska, including within Denali National Park and Preserve, are experiencing landcover changes and new ecosystem trajectories associated with regional warming trends. One major shift is that tall woody vegetation, like trees and shrubs, are spreading into areas that historically only supported low shrub vegetation. In Denali, balsam poplar trees are now growing on recently exposed glacial landscapes, changing the usual path of plant growth in recently disturbed subalpine ecosystems.

This study looked at how snow, soil, and plants influence each other in this new dynamic. We found that where poplar trees are present, there are deeper snowpacks, deeper unfrozen soils that plants can use, and taller vegetation overall. These changes are linked: taller trees catch more snow, which provides water and keeps the ground warmer, slowing the development of permafrost. In turn, this creates conditions for soils to deepen and for taller plants to thrive. This feedback shows that poplar trees act as “ecosystem engineers”—they change their environment in ways that support their own growth. As a result, these landscapes may not develop into permafrost-underlain tundra as expected, but instead follow a different path shaped by poplar expansion.

Tree Invasions of Subarctic Shrublands Interact With Locally Augmented Snow and Functional Soil Depths: A Case Study in Denali National Park

Abstract
Land-cover changes and new ecosystem trajectories in Interior Alaska have altered the structure and function of landscapes, with regional warming trends altering carbon and water cycling. Notably, these changes include the increased distribution of tall woody vegetation, trees and shrubs, in landscapes that historically only supported low shrub vegetation cover. In Denali National Park, Alaska, this phenomenon has altered primary succession pathways towards tundra ecosystems with the establishment and expansion of balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera) trees. In this study, we examine how snow, soil, and vegetation processes interact within this altered successional pathway towards further landscape change following glacial recession. In a sequence of outflow terraces, we found that variations in snow depth, functional soil depth, leaf area index, overstory height, and understory height were all significantly correlated with each other, with those effects largely explained by the presence of poplar. Poplar-dominated plots had deeper snowpacks, deeper functional soil depths, taller overstory and shrub heights, and greater LAI than in non-poplar plots of the same landscape age. These findings suggest a feedback cycle where the establishment of taller vegetation (here, poplar) alters ecosystem processes in the following notable ways: taller vegetation is able to trap more snow by reducing wind exposure and limiting sublimation; this snow provides water through additional snowmelt and insulation, keeping soils warmer and lessening permafrost development, leading to deeper functional soil depths. This feedback demonstrates poplar's ability to modify the environment as an ecosystem engineer, engineering a trajectory away from the otherwise expected permafrost-underlain tundra.

Albrigtsen, J. O., S. E. Stehn, C. A. Roland, and S. T. Allen. 2025. Tree invasions of subarctic shrublands interact with locally augmented snow and functional soil depths: A case study in Denali National Park. Ecology and Evolution 15(8): e71974.