Natural History Wanderings

An article in YubaNet reports that across Europe mountain plants are moving higher. An increase was seen in the number of plants in the summit areas in Northern and Central Europe. This was in contrast to southern Europe where the number of plants at mountain summits decreased or remained the same.

Harald Pauli from the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA) programme, which coordinated the study, said, “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”.

Pauli added “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. 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”

Read more at YubaNet. Accelerating climate change exerts strong pressure on Europes mountain flora.