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)
- Institute: Institute for Alpine Environment
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, Niedrist G, Illmer P, Präg N, Meul A, Dainese M (2023)
Presentation/Speech
Conference: GfÖ Annual Meeting 2023 - 52nd Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland | Leipzig | 11.9.2023 - 16.9.2023
Lembo S (2022)
Presentation/Speech
Conference: International Mountain Conference IMC#22 | Innsbruck | 11.9.2022 - 15.9.2022