MICROPLANTALP

MICROorganism-PLANT Interactions in the Forefield of Glaciers: a Hotspot for Studying the Impact of Climate Change in ALPine Habitats (MICROPLANTALP)

During the 21st century, Alpine areas have been experiencing warming at a rate higher than the global average, putting their sensitive ecosystems at risk. Climate change alters the balance between carbon assimilation, storage, and release, potentially leading to significant CO2 emissions. In recent decades, experimental ecology has shifted from observational studies to manipulation experiments, using methods such as soil monolith transplantations across altitudes to test adaptation strategies and/or controlled systems to simulate future climate scenarios.

In this context, the PRIN MICROPLANTALP project provides valuable insights into how alpine grassland ecosystems respond to climate change by integrating the study of carbon flux dynamics, plant communities, and soil microorganisms. The project adopts two complementary experimental approaches: transplant experiments and microcosm experiments.

In the transplant approach, soil monoliths were transferred from an altitude of 2500 m to 1500 m in Val Veny, Courmayeur, Italy, simulating a 5°C temperature increase as projected for 2100 under the IPCC RCP 8.5 scenario. Two transplants were carried out: one in 2022 (old plots) and one in 2023 (new plots), allowing the study of carbon fluxes at different acclimation stages. Continuous chamber systems were installed at both altitudes to measure CO2 fluxes every 15 minutes in both undisturbed control plots and transplanted plots, using transparent and opaque chambers.

In the microcosm experiments, soil monoliths collected from the alpine ecosystem (2500 m a.s.l.) were transferred to the European Ecotron in Montpellier (CNRS, France) for climate manipulation experiments. The monoliths were exposed to current conditions (~420 ppm CO2, Control) and to two future climate scenarios (~550 ppm CO2 and ~800 ppm CO2, corresponding to IPCC RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios for 2070, respectively). The Ecotron’s experimental chambers allowed the simultaneous manipulation of multiple climatic variables, including temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, radiation, and CO2 concentration.

The combined results of the transplant and microcosm experiments will shed light on the evolutionary trajectories of alpine ecosystems in response to climate change.

Former responsible of the project was Dr. Angela Augusti