CLIMATE CHANGE AND BIO-MONITORING AT HIGH ALTITUDE:

THE GLORIA APPROACH

Prof. Graziano RossiDep. Land Ecology – University of Pavia, Italy

Alpe di Mommio, 1855 m s.l.m. (Northern Apennines)

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

Direct and indirect effects of climate change affect biodiversity and may lead to the extinction of a variety of species

(Parolo & Rossi, 2008)

Salix herbacea

The gravity of these "extinction scenarios" can only be documented by long-term in situ monitoring.

Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine

Environments

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.

GLORIA’s purposeGLORIA’s purpose

GLORIA: DataGLORIA: 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

For every GLORIA site � data on plant species temperature data

GLORIA: In situ observationGLORIA: 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).

GLORIA: AimsGLORIA: 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.

GLORIA: MethodsGLORIA: Methods

TARGET REGION MULTI-SUMMIT APPROACH

�Comparability�Simplicity �Economy

Four summit sites along the elevation gradient are the minimum requirements for a GLORIA target region.

ELEVATION GRADIENT

GLORIA: MethodsGLORIA: Methods

Summit is divided into 8 sections: samples of the summit flora to detect species migration

SUMMIT AREA SECTIONS

GLORIA: MethodsGLORIA: Methods

QUADRAT CLUSTER

with 4 permanent 1 m2 plots:4 clusters per summit(one in each main compass direction)

3 m

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

GLORIA: MethodsGLORIA: Methods

TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS

in each 3m x 3m quadrat cluster in one-hour intervals to compare changes of the temperature

GLORIA: MethodsGLORIA: Methods

GLORIA in the worldGLORIA in the world

GLORIA: the beginning…GLORIA: the beginning…

2001 - 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 theworld-wide implementation of GLORIA.

2004 - 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.

2006 - By end of 2006, the network consisted of 47 target regions and more than 50 research teams, distributed over 5 continents.

2008 – During the summer of 2008 a first monitoring of the European Target Regions (after 7 years) has been done.

GLORIA: the future…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).