An international study shows how climate change is reshaping plant communities across Europe.
Published in Nature, the study analysed a unique database of more than 6,000 vegetation plots across forests, grasslands and mountain summits in Europe, with observations spanning periods of 12 to 78 years.
It found that mountains are rapidly losing cold-adapted species, while forests and grasslands are becoming richer in warm-adapted species.
The study was led by researchers from the Forest & Nature Lab (ForNaLab, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University), with partners including the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) and the University of Exeter.
Key findings
- "Thermophilisation" visible everywhere: plant species that prefer warmer conditions are increasing in population relative to cold-adapted species.
- Mountains hardest hit: in the Alps and other mountain regions, cold-adapted species are disappearing at a rapid pace.
- Forests and grasslands: these ecosystems show a strong relative increase in warm-adapted species, mainly due to colonisation by new species, but they are also losing some cold-adapted species.
- "Climatic debt": across all ecosystems, plant communities are responding more slowly than climate change itself, leading to an accumulation of "climatic debt" (plants no longer in equilibrium with the local climate) that poses risks to biodiversity and ecosystem stability.
Why is this important?
The results clearly show that climate warming does not have the same effects everywhere. Ecosystems respond differently depending on their structure and composition. This means that climate adaptation strategies must be tailored specifically to each ecosystem.
"Our study shows that we cannot write a single, uniform story about the impacts of climate warming. While mountain regions are losing species that cannot survive anywhere else, forests and grasslands are mainly shifting towards warm-adapted species. This has profound consequences for biodiversity conservation in Europe," said Professor Pieter De Frenne, from Ghent University.
Dr Jon Bennie, from Exeter's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, said: "As the global climate warms, long-term studies of ecosystems are essential to understand how our environment is changing, and what we can expect in the future.
"This study is the most comprehensive analysis in Europe to date.
"It clearly shows that forests, grasslands and mountains are responding to climate change as warmth-loving plant species thrive and (in some cases) cold-demanding species decline or go extinct.
"Worryingly, these changes in vegetation are lagging behind the rapid pace of climate change, suggesting that we are in 'climatic debt' - committed to further extinctions and ecosystem change as the natural environment catches up."
The research is a collaboration among dozens of scientists from across Europe, North America, and Asia.
