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effects of climate change on alpine plants
Section of Botany
Alpine climates have undergone significant
change over the past century.
in many parts of the Alps temperatures
have risen by up to 2 °c between 1901
and 2000. in this century, the warming
in the Alps is projected to continue between
+2,9 °c and +5,3 °c by 2085.
Alpine ecosystems are considered to
be particularly sensitive to the effects of
global warming, because they are characterised
by species adapted to low temperatures.
in response to climate warming
in alpine habitats there are expected
and partially documented reductions of
the duration and dept of snow cover and
rapid glacier retreat and these changes
are associated with changing distribution,
phenology and physiology of several
plant species.
since the beginning of 2011, two
post-doc projects (2011-2014) funded
by the Provincia Autonoma di Trento/
eu Vii Framework Programme (FP7),
through the programme “People” (Marie
curie Action - coFund), aim to in-
The main results and projects 2010-2011
vestigate the effects of climate change
on alpine flora. in the project cAPAce,
dr. Andrea Mondoni is studying the effects
of warmer temperatures on seed
germination and seedling survival of
the glacier foreland species. here, using
a novel approach, that considers the
altitudinal variation of temperature as a
surrogate for future climate scenarios,
seeds are exposed to different simulated
seasonal temperatures in the laboratory
and in the wild. dr Maurizia Gandini
is leading the project cliMBVeG, which
aims to contribute to assess the magnitude
and the extent of global warming
impact on alpine plant diversity taking
into account changes of plant distribution
(e.g. species extinction, migration)
and variations of plant responses to climatic
factors over time. This research
will use standardized monitoring protocol
developed under GloRiA project
(Global observation Research initiative
in Alpine environment), a worldwide
project started in 2001.
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