Vascular plants in the western Tibetan Plateau reach 6000 m--the highest elevation on Earth. Due to the significant warming of the region, plant ranges are expected to shift upwards. However, factors governing maximum elevational limits of plant are unclear. To experimentally assess these factors, we transplanted 12 species from 5750 m to 5900 m (upper edge of vegetation) and 6100 m (beyond range) and monitored their survival for six years. In the first three years (2009-2012), there were plants surviving beyond the regional upper limit of vegetation. This supports the hypothesis of dispersal and/or recruitment limitation. Substantial warming, recorded in-situ during this period, very likely facilitated the survival. The survival was ecologically a non-random process, species better adapted to repeated soil freezing and thawing survived significantly better. No species have survived at 6100 m since 2013, probably due to the extreme snowfall in 2013. In conclusion, apart from the minimum heat requirements, our results show that episodic climatic events are decisive determinants of upper elevational limits of vascular plants.

Department of Botany Faculty of Science Charles University Benátská 2 Praha CZ 128 01 Czech Republic

Department of Botany University of South Bohemia České Budějovice Czech Republic

Department of Ecosystem Biology University of South Bohemia České Budějovice Czech Republic

Department of Forest Ecology Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Kamýcká 129 CZ 165 21 Praha 6 Suchdol Czech Republic

Department of Vegetation Ecology Institute of Botany The Czech Academy of Sciences Brno Czech Republic

Institute of Botany The Czech Academy of Sciences Průhonice Czech Republic

Institute of Botany The Czech Academy of Sciences Třeboň Czech Republic

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