- Resurvey of a GLORIA Target Region in the Swiss National Park
(2011) - There is no doubt that recent global climate change is
in process and affects life on earth. Especially mountain
ecosystems are supposed to be highly sensitive to climate change
due to the vertical compression of life zones, rough abiotic
environment and limiting ecological factors. Therefore, the
European Alps is one of the best observed ecosystems where many
studies figured out how climate change is affecting
biodiversity. Probably the biggest and most well-known project
is the GLORIA-Europe initiative established by Prof. Dr. Georg
Grabherr from University of Vienna. The aim of this project is
to establish a world-wide long-term monitoring network in alpine
ecosystems to detect effects of climate change on the vegetation
of mountain summits using standardised methods. This study is
involved in the GLORIA initiative to resurvey four calcareous
and four siliceous summits at Swiss National Park in summer
2009/10. The aim of this study is