Europe's Mountain Summits Are Warming - Vegetation Is Responding in Surprisingly Different Ways

Decades of climate change have not left Europe's mountain vegetation unscathed. However, the changes observed do not always match expectations. As a new international study by a research team led by researchers from the University of Vienna, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the BOKU University shows, alpine vegetation has shifted significantly towards warmth-associated species. However, the direct link between this so-called thermophilisation and local warming is surprisingly weak. The study has recently been published in the prestigious journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.