Survival in little? Microhabitats as refugia of high-elevated plants in the Spanish Sierra Nevada
David Kienle, University of Bayreuth (DE)
Climate change is a serious threat to high-elevated plant species. There are three possible strategies to survive if they cannot exist in their inherent habitats any more: Upward shift, use of phenotypic plasticity ore movement to small-scaled local still suitable microhabitats. An aggravating factor is that high-mountain plants are already at their ecologic limits. Based on a possible climate scenario we analyzed future shift strategies considering current and future connectivity paths. The study was conducted at the Spanish Sierra Nevada National Park as part of the ECOPOTENTIAL project.