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Wednesday, September 9Wednesday, September 9
Rising temperatures driven by climate change are reshaping plant biodiversity on European mountain peaks, with warmer conditions pushing new species upward while native alpine flora face extinction, according to a study published Thursday in *Science*.
Researchers tracked vegetation changes at 62 mountain summits across 16 European ranges, including the Alps, Sierra Nevada and Caucasus, between 2001 and 2022. Surveys conducted every seven years revealed that plant species from lower elevations are migrating upward as temperatures rise, increasing overall species counts on peaks. However, cold-adapted species already at the highest elevations have nowhere to retreat and are disappearing, said Jonas Lembrechts, an ecologist at Utrecht University and co-author of the study.
Each plant species thrives within a specific temperature range, and as warming alters these zones, species at the lower edge of their habitat vanish from those areas. “Plants from lower down the mountain suddenly find the summit pleasant, so they move up,” Lembrechts explained. “But for species already at the top, there’s no escape from the heat.” The phenomenon, dubbed the “escalator to extinction,” has previously been observed in mountain bird species forced into ever-shrinking habitats.
The study is among the few to examine alpine vegetation at this scale, requiring fieldwork rather than satellite imagery to distinguish species. While the greening of mountain peaks may appear positive, Lembrechts noted that the loss of cold-dependent species offsets the gains, reducing overall biodiversity .
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