Monitoring of vascular plant diversity in a changing climate in the alpine zone of the Central Greater Caucasus

Abstract

Short-term changes in plant species number, cover, frequency, and composition were studied along an altitudinal gradient crossing 4 GLORIA summits (from 2240 m to 3024 m a.s.l.) from the treeline ecotone to the subnival zone in the Central Caucasus. Large-scale (summit area) and small-scale (16 plots of 1 m 2 /summit) patterns were monitored in 2001. Recording was repeated in 2008. During the monitoring period, the average soil temperature and growing-degree days did not significantly increase. After 7 years, a revisitation of the summit area revealed a considerable increase of species richness, especially at the lower alpine zone (CP1 and CP2 summits). At a small scale (1 m 2 ), species richness also increased at the lower summit (from 12.5 ± 2.87 to 15.5 ± 3.12 species on the CP1 summit). The cover of 17 species significantly decreased, while that of 5 increased. There were significant linear relationships between species richness and altitude and climatic variables. The main newcomers were species from the lower altitudinal zones and their percentage was highest on the southern slope. Endemics and cold-adapted species were not seriously endangered. In the Central Caucasus we do not consider climate warming as the primary driver of the changes of plant richness and competition.

Dynamics in plant diversity and composition on Australian alpine summits over time

“…Earlier assessments of this study area demonstrated a similar pattern of graminoid and shrub driven compositional dynamics (Venn et al 2012;Venn et al 2014). Across a wide range of alpine summits monitored using the GLORIA protocol, shifts in composition have also been detected in Europe (Erschbamer et al 2009;Fernández Calzado and Molero Mesa 2013;Lamprecht et al 2018;Malanson and Fagre 2013), Asia (Gigauri et al 2013;Hamid et al 2020) and South America (Carilla et al 2018). The majority of changes across the Mount Clarke summits occurred between the first two surveys.…”

Variability of plant species diversity during the natural restoration of the subalpine birch forest in the Central Great Caucasus

“…This is morphologically the most complex high-mountain region of the Central Greater Caucasus. The ground materials are Jurassic rocks, Palaeozoic and even older granites, young lava, and moraines (Nakhutsrishvili, 2013). The elevation of the region ranges from 1210 m a.s.l.…”

“…Fog is frequent in this zone (135 foggy days per year), especially in the summer. Winds of the mountain-gorge type prevail (Nakhutsrishvili, 2013).…”

“…), and nival (above 3600 m a.s.l.). The environmental conditions, the morphological and functional types of plants, and the composition and productivity of plant communities in the study region are described by Nakhutsrishvili (2013).…”

“…Climate change is quite intensive in the northern European zones (Gottfried et al, 2012). However, the climate has been more stable in the Central Greater Caucasus in the past century (Gigauri et al, 2013). Therefore, birch forest protection should be dependent on human impact and overgrazing effects (Holtmeier, 2009).…”