Alpine Plants in a Changing World
Event details
| Date | 16.05.2011 |
| Hour | 16:15 |
| Speaker | Dr Christian RIXEN; Mountain Ecosystem Group, SLF (Institut pour l'étude de la neige et des avalanches) |
| Location |
GR B3 30
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Alpine plants fascinate us with their diversity and their interesting adaptations to, from a human perspective, extreme environmental conditions. It can be anticipated that those specialized species will respond sensitively to changes in the environment and climate.
In this presentation, I will report from several studies that have investigated how changes in snow cover, elevated atmospheric CO2 levels, warmer temperatures and, last but not least, land-use can affect alpine plants and their diversity. For instance, I will demonstrate,
- how the plant diversity of mountain summits has increased in recent decades and centuries probably due to higher temperature and reduced snow cover,
- that elevated atmospheric CO2 levels have the potential to enhance plant growth at tree line but that at the same time they can also increase the plants susceptibility to freezing events,
- that it is important to maintain high alpine plant diversity to provide key ecosystem services such as soil stability.
Links
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Contact
- Prof. Alexandre Buttler, ECOS/WSL