Alpine plants like the avalanche lily may soon be squeezed out their habitat by global warming.
Researchers measure significant changes in plant communities across European mountain ranges
By Summit Voice
SUMMIT COUNTY â€" Global warming is diminishing species diversity across many mountain ranges in Europe at a dizzying pace. A continent-wide study showed measurable changes in plant communities just within a decade, according to a study led by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Vienna.
The scientists reached their conclusions after surveying plant communities on 66 mountain summits from the north of Europe all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, mapping plants in 2001 and again in 2008. The results essentially showed that plants are moving upward, which raises the number of species on mountain tops but leads to an overall decline in species diversity.
“Our results showing a decline at the Mediterranean sites is worrying because these are the mountains with a very unique flora and a large proportion of their species occur only there and nowhere else on Earth,†said Harald Pauli, of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA) program, which coordinated the study.
Increasing species numbers were only found on summits of northern and central Europe. By contrast, species numbers were stagnating or declining at nearly all sites in the Mediterranean region.
Although there’s been an increase in the number of species on northern mountains, the overall pattern doesn’t bode well for plant diversity.
†… The newly appearing plants are predominantly more widespread species from lower elevations and will pose increasing competition pressure on the rarer cold-loving alpine flowers,†said researcher Michael Gottfried.
The uppermost tips of Mediterranean mountains are rather small patches of cold habitats, spread like islands over a sea of much warmer lowlands. Lowland areas and the mountains are exposed to a characteristic dry season in summer. In the higher altitudes, precipitation mainly falls as snow during winter and spring and snowmelt is crucial for water supply of mountain plants during the arid growing season.
“The observed species losses were most pronounced on the lower summits, where plants are expected to suffer earlier from water deficiency than on the snowier high peaks,†Pauli said. “Climate warming and decreasing precipitation in the Mediterranean during the past decades fit well to the pattern of shrinking species occurrences. Additionally, much of the Mediterranean region is projected to become even dryer during the upcoming decades.â€
“Impacts of climate change, either through warming or combined with increased drought stress, are likely to threaten alpine plants not only on the continent, but even on the world-wide level. A number of mountain plants may resist or find colder substitute habitats somewhere in a rugged mountain terrain. Continued species monitoring will be vital for tracing ongoing ecological impacts on the diversity of alpine plant life,†said Georg Grabherr, chair of GLORIA.
The GLORIA network
GLORIA (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments) aims to establish and maintain a site-based monitoring network for the long-term observation of high mountain plants. It was commencing in Europe about a decade ago, when the sites used in this study were established. By now, the GLORIA monitoring programme was applied by more than 100 research teams and in over 100 mountain regions on six continents. Researchers will return to their sites every five to ten years. Further details: http://www.gloria.ac.at/.
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Filed under: biodiversity, climate and weather, Environment, global warming, plants and flowers, world news Tagged: | alpine plants, Austrian Academy of Sciences, biodiversity, climate, Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments, global warming
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