Abstract
The impacts of climate change on alpine summit floras have been widely investigated. However, only few studies included alpine grasslands and generally concluded that snowbeds, with a long snow cover duration and a short growing season, and windy ridges, with a short snow cover duration and strong winter frosts, are the most sensitive alpine grasslands. However, these habitats were mostly investigated in different regions, where local factors (e.g. nitrogen deposition, grazing) can co-vary with climate changes, potentially obscuring differences between habitats. Here, we focused on the Zermatt region (Swiss Alps) to investigate the impacts of climate change on snowbeds and windy ridges. Forty-three exhaustive historical plant inventories on windy ridges (acidophilic or basophilic) and 31 inventories in snowbeds (typical or wet) were repeated in quasi-permanent plots after approximately 23 years. Historical and recent records were compared with the Simpson index, Bray–Curtis dissimilarity, a PCA, ecological indicator values and the frequency and cover changes of species. There was a general increase in α-diversity and a decrease in β-diversity (homogenisation). Most of the new species in the plots were generalists from surrounding grasslands. The plant composition tended to be more thermophilous on acidophilic windy ridges and in typical snowbeds. The flora of acidophilic windy ridges became more similar to that of basophilic windy ridges and more eutrophic. We interpreted this as possibly arising from fertilisation by the aeolian dust deposition coming from the expanding glacial moraine in the valley. In snowbeds, the species indicated increasingly drier conditions, especially in wet snowbeds. Warming climate induces lower snowfall and earlier snowmelt, leading to a shorter snow cover duration. Hence, wet snowbeds are certainly among the most threatened plant communities by climate change in the Alps.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Armitage HF, Britton AJ, van der Wal R, Woodin SJ (2014) The relative importance of nitrogen deposition as a driver of Racomitrium heath species composition and richness across Europe. Biol Conserv 171:224–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.01.039
Borcard D, Gillet F, Legendre P (2011) Numerical ecology with R. Springer, New York
Braun-Blanquet J (1964) Pflanzensoziologie. Grundzüge der Vegetationskunde. Springer, Wien
Britton AJ, Beale CM, Towers W, Hewison RL (2009) Biodiversity gains and losses: evidence for homogenisation of Scottish alpine vegetation. Biol Conserv 142:1728–1739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2009.03.010
Carbognani M, Tomaselli M, Petraglia A (2014) Current vegetation changes in an alpine late snowbed community in the south-eastern Alps (N-Italy). Alpine Bot 124:105–113. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00035-014-0135-x
CFHA (2005) Les polluants atmosphériques azotés en Suisse. Rapport de la Commission fédérale de l’hygiène de l’air (CFHA). OFEFP, Berne
CH2018 (2018) CH2018—climate scenarios for Switzerland, Technical Report. National Center for Climate Services, Zürich
Clerc P, Truong C (2012) Catalogue des lichens de Suisse. http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/cataloguelichen. Accessed 17 Apr 2019
Dullinger S, Gattringer A, Thuiller W et al (2012) Climate warming, dispersal limitation and extinction debt of European mountain plants. Nat Clim Change 2:619–622
Elumeeva TG, Onipchenko VG, Egorov AV, Khubiev AB, Tekeev DK, Soudzilovskaia NA, Cornelissen JHC (2013) Long-term vegetation dynamic in the Northwestern Caucasus: which communities are more affected by upward shifts of plant species? Alpine Bot 123:77–85. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00035-013-0122-7
Friedel H (1961) Schneedeckendauer und Vegetationsverteilung im Gelände. Mitt Forstl Bu Versuchsanstalt Wien 59:317–369
Gisladottir FO, Arnalds O, Gisladottir G (2005) The effect of landscape and retreating glaciers on wind erosion in south Iceland. Land Degrad Dev 16:177–187
Gottfried M, Pauli H, Futschik A et al (2012) Continent wide response of mountain vegetation to climate change. Nat Clim Change 2:111–115
Gritsch A, Dirnbock T, Dullinger S (2016) Recent changes in alpine vegetation differ among plant communities. J Veg Sci 27:1177–1186
Güsewell S, Peter M, Birrer S (2012) Altitude modifies species richness-nutrient indicator value relationships in a country-wide survey of grassland vegetation. Ecol Indic 20:134–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2012.02.011
Kapfer J, Grytnes JA, Gunnarsson U, Birks HJB (2011) Fine-scale changes in vegetation composition in a boreal mire over 50 years. J Ecol 99:1179–1189
Kapfer J, Hédl R, Jurasinski G, Kopecký M, Schei FH, Grytnes JA (2017) Resurveying historical vegetation data—opportunities and challenges. Appl Veg Sci 20:164–171
Käsermann C, Meyer F, Steiner A (2003) Les richesses de la nature en Valais—Le monde végétal de Zermatt. Rotten, Viège
Klein G, Vitasse Y, Rixen C, Marty C, Rebetez M (2016) Shorter snow cover duration since 1970 in the Swiss Alps due to earlier snowmelt more than to later snow onset. Clim Change 139:637–649. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1806-y
Klein G, Rebetez M, Rixen C, Vitasse Y (2018) Unchanged risk of frost exposure for subalpine and alpine plants after snowmelt in Switzerland despite climate warming. Int J Biometeorol 62:1755–1762
Körner C (2003) Alpine plant life. Springer, Berlin
Küfmann C (2003) Soil types and eolian dust in high-mountainous karst of the Northern Calcareous Alps (Zugspitzplatt, Wetterstein Mountains, Germany). CATENA 53:211–227
Landolt E, Bäumler B, Erhardt A et al (2010) Flora Indicativa. Ecological indicator values and biological attributes of the Flora of Switzerland and the Alps. Haupt, Berne
Lauber K, Wagner G, Gygax A (2012) Flora helvetica. Haupt, Bern
Maliniemi T, Kapfer J, Saccone P, Skog A, Virtanen R (2018) Long-term vegetation changes of treeless heath communities in northern Fennoscandia: links to climate change trends and reindeer grazing. J Veg Sci 29:469–479
Matteodo M, Wipf S, Stöckli V, Rixen C, Vittoz P (2013) Elevation gradient of successful plant traits for colonizing alpine summits under climate change. Environ Res Lett 8:024043. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/2/024043
Matteodo M, Ammann K, Verrecchia EP, Vittoz P (2016) Snowbeds are more affected than other subalpine–alpine plant communities by climate change in the Swiss Alps. Ecol Evol 6:6969–6982. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2354
Odland A (2009) Interpretation of altitudinal gradients in South Central Norway based on vascular plants as environmental indicators. Ecol Indic 9:409–421
OFEV (2018) La qualité de l’air en 2017. Résultats du Réseau national d’observation des polluants atmosphériques (NABEL). OFEV, Bern
Pauli H, Gottfried M, Dullinger S et al (2012) Recent plant diversity changes on Europe’s mountain summits. Science 336:353–355
Prunier P, Greulich F, Béguin C et al. (2017) Phytosuisse: un référentiel pour les associations végétales de Suisse. https://www.infoflora.ch/fr/milieux/phytosuisse.html. Accessed 17 Apr 2019
Rastner P, Joerg PC, Huss M, Zemp M (2016) Historical analysis and visualization of the retreat of Findelengletscher, Switzerland, 1859–2010. Glob Planet Change 145:67–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2016.07.005
Rebetez M, Reinhard M (2008) Monthly air temperature trends in Switzerland 1901–2000 and 1975–2004. Theor Appl Climatol 91:27–34
Richard JL (1991) Flore et végétation de Zermatt (VS): premier aperçu et réflexions. Bull Murith 109:27–40
Ross LC, Woodin SJ, Hester AJ, Thompson DBA, Birks HJB (2012) Biotic homogenization of upland vegetation: patterns and drivers at multiple spatial scales over five decades. J Veg Sci 23:755–770. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2012.01390.x
Roth T, Kohli L, Rihm B, Amrhein V, Achermann B (2015) Nitrogen deposition and multi-dimensional plant diversity at the landscape scale. R Soc Open Sci 2:150017
Sandvik SM, Odland A (2014) Changes in alpine snowbed-wetland vegetation over three decades in northern Norway. Nord J Bot 32:377–384. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-1051.2013.00249.x
Serquet G, Marty C, Rebetez M (2013) Monthly trends and the corresponding altitudinal shift in the snowfall/precipitation day ratio. Theor Appl Climatol 114:437–444. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-013-0847-7
Service géologique national (2005) Carte géologique de la Suisse 1:500’000. OFEG, Bern-Ittigen
Steinbauer MJ, Grytnes JA, Jurasinski G et al (2018) Accelerated increase in plant species richness on mountain summits is linked to warming. Nature 556:231–234. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0005-6
Steiner A (2002) Die Vegetation der Gemeinde Zermatt. Geobot Helvet 74:1–204
Stevens CJ, Thompson K, Grime JP, Long CJ, Gowing DJG (2010) Contribution of acidification and eutrophication to declines in species richness of calcifuge grasslands along a gradient of atmospheric nitrogen deposition. Funct Ecol 24:478–484
Stocker TF, Qin D, Plattner GK et al (2013) Technical Summary. In: Stocker TF, Qin D, Plattner GK (eds) Climate change 2013: the physical science basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
R Core Team (2017) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. http://www.r-project.org/. Accessed 17 Apr 2019
Virtanen R, Eskelinen A, Gaare E (2003) Long-term changes in alpine plant communities in Norway and Finland. In: Nagy L, Grabherr G, Körner C, Thompson DBA (eds) Alpine biodiversity in Europe. Springer, Berlin, pp 411–422
Vitasse Y, Rebetez M, Filippa G, Cremonese E, Klein G, Rixen C (2017) ‘Hearing’ alpine plants growing after snowmelt: ultrasonic snow sensors provide long-term series of alpine plant phenology. Int J Biometeorol 61:349–361
Vittoz P, Bodin J, Ungricht S, Burga C, Walther GR (2008) One century of vegetation change on Isla Persa, a nunatak in the Bernina massif in the Swiss Alps. J Veg Sci 19:671–680
Vittoz P, Dussex N, Wassef J, Guisan A (2009a) Diaspore traits discriminate good from weak colonisers on high-elevation summits. Basic Appl Ecol 10:508–515
Vittoz P, Randin CF, Dutoit A, Bonnet F, Hegg O (2009b) Low impact of climate change on subalpine grasslands in the Swiss Northern Alps. Glob Change Biol 15:209–220
Vonlanthen CM, Bühler A, Veit H, Kammer PM, Eugster W (2006a) Alpine plant communities: a statistical assessment of their relation to microclimatological, pedological, geomorphological, and other factors. Phys Geogr 27:137–154
Vonlanthen CM, Kammer PM, Eugster W, Bühler A, Veit H (2006b) Alpine vascular plant species richness: the importance of daily maximum temperature and pH. Plant Ecol 184:13–25
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to J.-L. Richard, B. Bressoud, C. Käsermann, S. Krähenmann, F. Meyer and S. Reist who collected the historical data, to A. Steiner who transmitted them to us, to M. Vust for his help in lichen identification and to J. Alexander for English editing. We also thank the Burgergemeinde Zermatt for authorising this study on their properties and the Zermatt Bergbahnen AG for offering the travelling costs for the cable cars during fieldwork.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Declaration of authorship
All authors designed the study, LL and SM inventoried the plots in the fields and analysed the data under the advices of MM and PV, and all authors contributed to the manuscript.
Ethical statement
The authors declare that they respected ethical standards.
Informed consent
The investigation in the field was conducted with authorisation of the Burgergemeinde Zermatt.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liberati, L., Messerli, S., Matteodo, M. et al. Contrasting impacts of climate change on the vegetation of windy ridges and snowbeds in the Swiss Alps. Alp Botany 129, 95–105 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00035-019-00223-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00035-019-00223-5