CLIMATE CHANGE AND BIOMONITORING AT HIGH ALTITUDE: THE GLORIA APPROACH

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1 CLIMATE CHANGE AND BIOMONITORING AT HIGH ALTITUDE: THE GLORIA APPROACH Prof. Graziano Rossi Dep. Land Ecology University of Pavia, Italy Alpe di Mommio, 1855 m s.l.m. (Northern Apennines)

2 Alpine zone, like environments above the treeline, is considered to be particularly sensitive to warming because it is determined by low temperature conditions.

3 Direct and indirect effects of climate change affect biodiversity and may lead to the extinction of a variety of species Salix herbacea (Parolo & Rossi, 2008)

4 The gravity of these "extinction scenarios" can only be documented by long-term in situ monitoring. Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments

5 GLORIA s purpose establish and maintain a world-wide long-term observation network in alpine environments for the comparative study of climate change impact on mountain biodiversity (Grabherr et al. 2000, Pauli et al. 2003); use a standardized monitoring protocol in all major mountain systems on Earth.

6 GLORIA: Data For every GLORIA site data on plant species temperature data In order to: discern trends in species diversity and temperature; assess and predict losses in biodiversity and other threats to these fragile alpine ecosystems

7 GLORIA: In situ observation Observation of specific responses of single species to climate warming SPECIES MIGRATION new assemblages at the current sites; disruption of the linkage among many species in current ecosystems (Root et al. 2003); significant biodiversity losses; changes in ecosystem functioning (Hawkins et al. 2008).

8 GLORIA: Aims provide data on the altitudinal differences in species richness, species composition and plant cover, on the soil temperature and on the snow cover duration in mountain systems world-wide; assess the potential risks for biodiversity losses; provide a baseline for the long-term monitoring; provide a substantial input to data-based scenarios on risks for biodiversity losses and on risks for ecosystem instability.

9 GLORIA: Methods TARGET REGION MULTI-SUMMIT APPROACH ELEVATION GRADIENT Comparability Simplicity Economy Four summit sites along the elevation gradient are the minimum requirements for a GLORIA target region.

10 GLORIA: Methods SUMMIT AREA SECTIONS Summit is divided into 8 sections: samples of the summit flora to detect species migration

11 GLORIA: Methods QUADRAT CLUSTER with 4 permanent 1 m2 plots: 4 clusters per summit (one in each main compass direction) 3m

12 GLORIA: Methods 1 M2 QUADRATS detailed species cover sampling to detect changes in the species composition FREQUENCY COUNTS in the 1 m2 quadrats to detect changes of vegetation patterns

13 GLORIA: Methods TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS in each 3m x 3m quadrat cluster in one-hour intervals to compare changes of the temperature

14 GLORIA in the world

15 GLORIA: the beginning GLORIA-Europe, a 5th RTD framework programme of the EU, started with 18 target regions in mountain areas of 13 European countries. This project was a contribution to the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) as a pilot study towards the world-wide implementation of GLORIA The total number of GLORIA target region has shifted to 28 target regions, including six target regions outside of Europe (e.g., Montana, USA; Australia, New Zealand). This is the first step towards an active global network By end of 2006, the network consisted of 47 target regions and more than 50 research teams, distributed over 5 continents During the summer of 2008 a first monitoring of the European Target Regions (after 7 years) has been done.

16 GLORIA: the future The number of Target Regions is still increasing In 2009 new target regions will be placed, for example, in South and North America, in the Himalayas and in the Orobic Alps (Bergamo, Italy).