The Alps provide a high habitat diversity for plant species, structured by broadand fine-scale abiotic site conditions. In man-made grasslands, vegetation composition is additionally affected by the type of landuse. We recorded vegetation composition in 216 parcels of grassland in 12 municipalities representing an area of 170 70 km in the south-eastern part of the Swiss Alps. Each parcel was ch...

The paper presents the analysis of genus Thymus flora South-East North Caucasus. Revealed total species, compiled an aspect , and conducted analysis's bioecological, geographical composition. In investigated territory, we have registered eight thymus distributed mainly in xerophilic types vegetation: steppe, friganoid, alpine, meadow-steppe, meadow societies.

Understanding the impact of grazing intensity on grassland production and soil fertility is of fundamental importance for grassland conservation and management. We thus compared three types of alpine steppe management by studying vegetation traits and soil properties in response to three levels of grazing pressure: permanent grazing (M1), seasonal grazing (M2), and grazing exclusion (M3) in the...

Alpine meadow ecosystem is among the highest soil carbon density and the most sensitive ecosystem to climate change. Partitioning autotrophic (Ra) and heterotrophic components (Rm) of ecosystem respiration (Re) is critical to evaluating climate change effects on ecosystem carbon cycling. Here we introduce a satellite-based method, combining MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) ...

Rapid changes to the earth’s climate are well underway, already influencing biological systems across the globe. Among the key impacts are potential shifts in the geographic range of many species or ecosystems, often predicted to move either poleward or upward in response to warmer conditions (1, 2). In mountain biomes, as upper elevations become more climatically hospitable to tree establishme...