UPSHIFT
Effects of air pressure on upwards shifting alpine ecosystems
- Deutsch
- English
- Italiano
- 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.
Lembo S (2022)
Presentation/Speech
Conference: International Mountain Conference IMC#22 | Innsbruck | 11.9.2022 - 15.9.2022