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The Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA) established an international long-term monitoring program and site-based network dealing with high-mountain vegetation and its
biological diversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') lev ...
. Its purpose is the in-situ observation and comparative assessment of alpine biodiversity patterns under the impact of accelerating
anthropogenic climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
. GLORIA involves sets of permanent plots established at pristine or near-natural sites set aside and monitored to observe the migration of
plant Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...
species due to
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
. Founded in 2001, the program has grown to more than 120 sites (status January 2016) around the world, distributed from the poles to the tropics.

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History

The idea to monitor alpine plant communities in the context of anthropogenic climate and global change was first discussed in 1996 during a
workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the on ...
of the
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) was a research programme that ran from 1987 to 2015 dedicated to studying the phenomenon of global change. Its primary focus was coordinating "international research on global-scale and regio ...
in
Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Provinces of Nepal, Province , subdivision_name1 ...
. In consequence, the GLORIA monitoring approach was initiated by the Austrian ecologists Georg Grabherr, Michael Gottfried and Harald Pauli at the turn of the century, by running experiments in alpine habitats to determine what a good sample method might be. In 2001, GLORIA-Europe was launched. This major pilot project, with 18 sites in 13 different
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
an nations, was a way to test out the idea before going worldwide. Since the spring of 2004, GLORIA has been successively expanding into other regions and across all major climate zones of the world.


Methods and structure

Comparability, simplicity and economy were the main considerations in designing GLORIA's standard recording design and method (Multi-Summit Approach), in order to build a world-wide network of operable sites. In each study region (target region) a suite of four monitoring locations in summit areas at different altitudes represents an elevation gradient from the treeline ecotone to the upper limits of plant life. At each location, vascular plant species and abundances are to be recorded in standardized permanent plots of different size at intervals of 5 to 10 years, along with continuous measurements of soil temperature. Several supplementary approaches, e.g., focusing on other organism groups, soil ecology or on socio-ecological features, are applied or are under development in some study regions. The network consists of dedicated ecologists and biologists from over hundred research institutions and many protected area authorities, distributed over six continents and it cooperates with other international efforts such as th
Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment
of the Future Earth programme and th
LTSER network
GLORIA's head office and central data base is affiliated to at the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research
and th
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences ViennaCenter for Global Change and Sustainability
, Austria.


Recent findings

On a pan-European scale, repeated surveys showed widespread thermophilisation of alpine vegetation, i.e., species compositions changed towards a larger percentage of thermophilous species at a concurrent decline of cold-adapted high-elevation species. Across Europe, species predominantly were shifting to higher elevations during the past decade. In central and northern Europe, this led to increasing species numbers in the permanent plots, whereas in Mediterranean mountains, species numbers were stagnating or declining, probably owing to combined effects of increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation. Recent declines of high elevation specialist species, however, were also observed in the European Alps. Comparisons with results from other continents are not yet available on a larger scale, because permanent sites were established at a later date.


See also

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Effects of global warming The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice ( glaciers), sea l ...
*
Alpine plant Alpine plants are plants that grow in an alpine climate, which occurs at high elevation and above the tree line. There are many different plant species and taxa that grow as a plant community in these alpine tundra. These include perennial grasses, ...
*
Alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical weather ( climate) for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions ...


References


External links

{{Commons category, Global observation research initiative in alpine environments (GLORIA)
International home pagePaper on U.S. participationGLORIA Andes
Climatological research Projects established in 2001