UPSHIFT

Effects of air pressure on upwards shifting alpine ecosystems

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  • Project duration: -
  • Project status: ongoing
  • Funding:
    Provincial Joint Programme – IT-FWF (Province BZ funding / Project)

Climate change is altering the elevation range limits of many organisms, often driving upward range shifts. In this context, reduced air pressure poses a potentially novel environmental problem for upwards migrating organisms to solve if they are to persist at high elevation as climate change continues. The goal of the project is threefold: 1) to understand how upwards migrating soil microorganisms and plant species react to lower air pressure; 2) to assess how upwards migrating soil microorganisms and plants perform with resident plants and soil microorganisms that have persisted in place under lower pressure; 3) to evaluate the effect of lower air pressure on the ecosystem water balance. The project integrates a unique extreme environment simulator (terraXcube) to simulate different alpine climate conditions, pot and mesocosm (lysimeter) experiments to disentangle the effects, and field observations from the LTSER site in Matsch/Mazia to validate the reliability of the obtained results.

Project Partners

University of Verona

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Biodiversity Monitoring South Tyrol

Biodiversity Monitoring South Tyrol

Duration: - Funding: Internal funding EURAC (Project)

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