Long-term changes in summit plant diversity in the Swiss National Park
Sonja Wipf, SLF - Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, WSL - Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Davos (CH)
Mountain regions are facing stronger warming than surrounding regions, changing species' elevational distributions and plant diversity in the alpine vegetation belt. Our study, based on long- and short-term monitoring data from European mountains, reveals increase in plant species richness and functional diversity on mountain tops. As also tourist frequency affects biodiversity, we use summits located in the Swiss National Park to show how the patterns and drivers of summit diversity changes differ between the highly visited mountains of the national park and its less visited surroundings.