For alpine plants, climate change means competition

Researchers from the Swiss federal technology institute ETH Zurich have shown that alpine plants could face not only warmer temperatures, but also deadly competition from unfamiliar species. In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, ETH Zurich plant ecologists Jonathan Levine and Jake Alexander transplanted small alpine wildflowers to an altitude 600 metres below their native habitat on the Calanda Mountain in Graubünden. The move simulated the three-degree temperature increase due to climate change that has been projected for Switzerland over the next 50­-100 years. The results showed that the transplanted species – spring pasqueflower, glossy scabious, alpine kidney vetch and black plantain – were able to cope well enough with the warmer temperature. The hard part was surviving the competition from the unfamiliar plant species that naturally inhabit lower elevations. When the four species encountered these competitors, the survival rate of the ...