Table Of ContentEcological Studies, Vol. 167
Analysis and Synthesis
Edited by
I.T. Baldwin, Jena, Germany
M.M. Caldwell, Logan, USA
G. Heldmaier, Marburg, Germany
O.L. Lange, Würzburg, Germany
H. A. Mooney, Stanford, USA
E.-D. Schulze, Jena, Germany
U. Sommer, Kiel, Germany
Ecological Studies
Volumes published since 1997 are listed at the end of this book.
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
L.Nagy G. Grabherr Ch. Körner D.B.A. Thompson (Eds.)
Alpine Biodiversity
in Europe
With 89 Figures, 17 in Color, and 61 Tables
Springer
Dr. Laszlo Nagy Prof. Dr. Christian Körner
McConnell Associates Institute of Botany
41Eildon Street University of Basel
Edinburgh, EH3 5JX Schönbeinstr. 6
Scotland 4056 Basel, Switzerland
Prof. Dr. Georg Grabherr Prof. Dr. Desmond B.A. Thompson
Department of Vegetation Ecology Advisory Services
and Conservation Biology Scottish Natural Heritage
Institute for Ecology 2 Anderson Place
and Nature Conservation Edinburgh, EH6 5NP
University of Vienna Scotland
Althanstr. 14
1091 Vienna, Austria
Cover illustration: Background: Mutterberger Seespitze, Stubai Alps, Austria (3302 m, L. Nagy).
Dark green fritillary butterfly Argynnis aglaja, Swiss Alps (M. Raviglione); dotterel Charadrius
morinellus, Scottish Highlands (S. Austin); Pyrenean frog Rana pyrenaica> Pyrenees (J. Serra
Cobo); alpine daisy Leucanthemopsis alpinum> Mt. Schrankogel, Stubai Alps, Austria (L. Nagy);
isard Rupicapra pyrenaica, Pyrenees (J.-P. Martinez-Rica); grasshopper Podismopsis poppiusi,
South Urals (Y. Mikhailov)
ISSN 0070-8356
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Alpine biodiversity in Europe / L. Nagy... [et al.].
p. cm. - (Ecological studies, ISSN 0070-8356; vol. 167)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-3-642-62387-5 ISBN 978-3-642-18967-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-18967-8
1. Mountain ecology—Europe. 2. Biological diversity—Europe I. Nagy, L. (Laszlo),
1961-11. Series.
QH135.A47 2003
57.5'4'094-dc21 203042503
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Preface
The United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development
(UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, spawned a multitude of pro-
grammes aimed at assessing, managing and conserving the earth's biological
diversity. One important issue addressed at the conference was the mountain
environment. A specific feature of high mountains is the so-called alpine
zone, i.e. the treeless regions at the uppermost reaches. Though covering only
a very small proportion of the land surface, the alpine zone contains a rela-
tively large number of plants, animals, fungi and microbes which are specifi-
cally adapted to cold environments. This zone contributes fundamentally to
the planet's biodiversity and provides many resources for mountain dwelling
as well as lowland people. However, rapid and largely man-made changes are
affecting mountain ecosystems, such as soil erosion, losses of habitat and
genetic diversity, and climate change, all of which have to be addressed. As
stated in the European Community Biodiversity Strategy, "the global scale of
biodiversity reduction or losses and the interdependence of different species
and ecosystems across national borders demands concerted international
action". Managing biodiversity in a rational and sustainable way needs basic
knowledge on its qualitative and quantitative aspects at local, regional and
global scales. This is particularly true for mountains, which are distributed
throughout the world and are indeed hot spots of biodiversity in absolute
terms as well as relative to the surrounding lowlands.
At the European scale, ALPNET, a European Science Foundation sponsored
Alpine Biodiversity Network (1998-2000), was established to synthesise avail-
able knowledge on alpine biodiversity. ALPNET was established following an
ESF-ICALPE (International Centre for Alpine Environments) exploratory
workshop at the Centro di Ecologia Alpina, Monte Bondone, Italy, in 1995. Pri-
ority was given to the cataloguing and synthesis of the available knowledge
on: (1) biodiversity of alpine environments, (2) spatial patterns along eleva-
tion gradients, and (3) vegetation dynamics. As ALPNET was considered to be
the first stage of integrating alpine biodiversity, field research was restricted
to characterising the bioclimate of the European alpine areas through the use
of soil temperature data loggers. This book is the culmination of ALPNET's
VI Preface
work. Three workshops (in Monte Bondone, Italy; Innsbruck, Austria; Car-
gese, Corsica) between 1998-2000 contributed substantially to much of the
material presented here, amounting to our current understanding of alpine
biodiversity in the high mountain regions of Europe.
The ALPNET model has since been adopted on a global scale to establish
the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment programme of DIVERSITAS
(http://www.unibas.ch/gmba).Another new initiative, with many participants
fromALPNET,is GLORIA-Europe (http://www.gloria.ac.at.launchedon 1 Jan-
uary 2001), the European component of a long-term global observation sys-
tem for recording vegetation and temperature at alpine summits.
Essentially, this book is about the taxonomic richness of plant and animal
communities, their pattern and diversity in space, their temporal changes in
species richness and community composition, and the underlying ecosystem
processes above the treeline in the European high mountains (except the
dry Mediterranean high mountains of Crete, the Canary Islands and the
Azores).
The book begins with an overview of Europe's alpine areas (Section I,
Chap. I). This is followed by a synthesis ofbioclimate of the alpine zone across
locations ranging from northern Scandinavia to the Sierra Nevada in a north-
south direction and from the Sierra Nevada to the Jakupica Mountains in cen-
tral Macedonia, FYR, from west to east. Section I concludes with a physio-
graphic and ecological characterisation of the European high mountain
regions (Chaps. 3.1-3.10). Section II (Chaps. 4-11) discusses plant taxonomic
and community (assemblage) diversity patterns. The scales range from local
through the sub-regional (mountain range) to the European continent. The
patterns are, in the main, discussed in relation to physiographic factors: lati-
tude, longitude, altitude, substratum and topography. Section III (Chaps.
12-17) presents a collection of accounts on high mountain invertebrate
species and assemblages, ordered similarly to Section II on plants. The major
factors discussed in relation to processes and changing patterns are global
change (primarily climate warming) and land use (grazing). Section IV
(Chaps. 18-23) focuses on vertebrate distribution, population ecology and
ecosystem impacts, especially grazing. Several accounts in Section V
(Chaps. 24-28) examine changes ranging from the timberline in the Urals to
those observed at the upper limit of plant life in the Alps. Whilst these reports
focus on climate amelioration as the main factor of changes (the reports are
from areas little influenced by man), the role of herbivores and their manage-
ment are at least of equal importance. The closing paper (Chap. 29) is a syn-
thesis of alpine biodiversity in space and time.
Unless stated otherwise, plant nomenclature in this volume follows Flora
Europaea (Tutin et al.1964, 1968-1980).
Preface VII
Acknowledgements. We thank the ESF for funding the ALPNET network and contribut-
ing to the cost of colour illustrations in this volume. The Bristol Foundation, Switzer-
land, and Scottish Natural Heritage, Scotland, contributed support towards financing the
editing work.
References
Tutin TG, Heywood VH, Burges NA, Valentine DW, Walters SM, Webb DA (eds) (1964)
Flora europaea Vol I. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Tuting TG, Heywood VH, Burges NA, Moore DM, Valentine DW, Walters SM, Webb DA
(eds) (1968-1980) Flora Europaea Vols. 2-5. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
February 2003 The Editors
Punta Minuta, Corsica, 2556 m (L. Nagy)
Fundamental to the establishment of ALPNET was the unstinting enthusi-
asm, driving commitment and knowledge of Jennifer Nagy (nee McConnell),
who died shortly before the first workshop in 1998. Our bryologist, Patricia
Geissler, was killed in a traffic accident in Geneva in 1999. We shall always
remember Jennifer and Patricia.
This book is dedicated to the memory of these two excellent scientists, friends
and colleagues. They were very special people.
Contents
I Europe's Alpine Areas
1 An Outline of Europe's Alpine Areas ..... 3
G. GRABHERR, 1. NAGY and D.B.A. THOMPSON
1.1 The Mountains of Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 An Ecological Classification of Europe's Alpine Areas . . . . 8
1.3 The Regional Accounts (Chaps. 3.1-3.10) . . . . . . . . . .. 11
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 11
2 A Bioclimatic Characterisation of Europe's Alpine Areas 13
CH. KORNER, J. PAULSEN and S. PELAEZ-RIEDL
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Site Selection and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.1 What Was Measured and Where? 13
2.2.2 Sensors and Sensor Positioning ............... . 14
2.2.3 Data Analysis ......................... . 16
2.3 Results ............................. . 17
2.3.1 Between-Year and Between-Site Variation 17
2.3.2 Temperature Extremes .................... . 19
2.3.3 The Daily Course of Ground Temperature ......... . 20
2.3.4 The Seasonal Course of Ground Temperature ....... . 20
2.3.5 Seasonal Mean Temperatures ................ . 22
2.3.6 Growing Season Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.3.7 Thermal Sums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4 Alpine Biota Share a Common Climate Across Europe 26
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 28
