Conclusions

Global change has many facets. Alpine biota will respond to elevated CO2, enhanced N-deposition, accumulation of volatile pollutants, climatic warming and its side effects in a rather differentiated way. Responses will largely depend on species, current habitat conditions and the speed and extent of change. There is no common recipe that generally holds.

CO 2-effects will be small and largely materialise via effects on organismic interactions and biodiversity effects. N-deposition may exceed the impact of all other atmospheric changes in high impact zones, but be neglegible elsewhere. Organic pollutants will be most effective in aquatic food chains, direct warming effects will cause cold adapted pioneers to migrate upslope provided summits are high enough. A spatial re-allocation of vegetation mosaics, following topographical gradients and snow cover patterns, will be seen. Massive consequences of warming are associated with the retreat of glaciers and melting of permaforst .

All these effects may, however, become overridden by human land use, globally the most imortant component of global change.

Further reading

Part of this unit has been extracted from Körner Ch (2003) Alpine Plant Life: functional plant ecology of high mountain ecosystems. Springer, Berlin, chapter 17

Acknowledgements

Christian Körner
(Institute of Botany, Ecology - University of Basel)
Concept and content, photographs
Thomas Zumbrunn
(Institute of Zoology, Evolution - University of Basel)
Technical realisation, photographs

References

Bahn M, Körner Ch (2003) Recent increases in summit flora caused by warming in the Alps. In: Nagy L, Grabherr G, Körner Ch, Thompson DBA (eds) Alpine biodiversity in Europe. Ecol stud, vol 167. Springer, Berlin
Beniston M, Diaz HF, Bradley RS (1997) Climatic change at high elevation sites: An overview. Climatic Change 36:233-251
Blais JM, Schindler DW, Muir DCG, Kimpe LE, Donald DB, Rosenberg B (1998) Accumulation of persistent organochlorine compounds in mountains of western Canada. Nature 395:585-588
Grabherr G, Gottfried M, Pauli H (1994) Climate effects on mountain plants. Nature 369:448
Keller F, Körner Ch (2003) The role of photoperiodism in alpine plant development. Arct Antarct Alp Res 35:361-386
Körner Ch (2003) Alpine Plant Life: functional plant ecology of high mountain ecosystems. Springer, Berlin (2nd edition)
Paulsen J, Weber UM, Körner Ch (2000) Tree growth near treeline: abrupt or gradual reduction with altitude?. Arct Antarct Alp Res 32:14-20
Petit JR, Jouzel J, Raynaud D, Barkov NI, Barnola JM, Basile I, Bender M, Chappellaz J, Davis M, Delaygue G, Delmotte M, Kotlyakov VM, Legrand M, Lipenkov VY, Lorius C, Pepin L, Ritz C, Saltzman E, Stievenard M (1999) Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica. Nature 399:429-436
Vitousek PM (1994) Potential nitrogen-fixation during primary succession in Hawaii volcanoes national-park. Biotropica 26:234-240