1 Post-print version of the published manuscript 2 3 Research article for Alpine Botany 4 5 Uneven rate of plant turnover along elevation in grasslands 6 7 Patrice Descombes1,2*, Pascal Vittoz3, Antoine Guisan3,4, Loïc Pellissier1,2 8 9 1Landscape Ecology, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zürich, CH-8092 Zürich, 10 Switzerland 11 2Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, CH-8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland 12 3University of Lausanne, Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, Géopolis, CH-1015 Lausanne, 13 Switzerland 14 4University of Lausanne, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Biophore, CH-1015 15 Lausanne, Switzerland 16 17 * Corresponding author: Patrice Descombes,
[email protected] 18 19 Keyword 20 Plant communities; nestedness; Swiss Alps; species diversity; phylogenetic turnover 21 22 Acknowledgements 23 We thank all the people involved in collecting the vegetation data over the years and two 24 anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript. This project was 25 supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) grant n°31003A-162604 and 26 grant n°31003A-1528661. 1 27 28 Authors contributions: PD and LP designed the study. LP, PV, AG and colleagues collected 29 the data. PD performed the statistical analyses. PD and LP wrote the first draft of the 30 manuscript and, PV and AG contributed to the writing. 2 31 Abstract 32 Plant taxonomic and phylogenetic composition of assemblages are known to shift 33 along environmental gradients, but whether the rate of species turnover is regular or not (e.g., 34 accelerations in particular sections of the gradient) remains poorly documented. 35 Understanding how rates of assemblage turnover vary along gradients is crucial to forecast 36 where climate change could promote the fastest changes within extant communities.