{"id":15289,"date":"2011-09-16T16:13:10","date_gmt":"2011-09-16T23:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=15289"},"modified":"2018-02-02T00:12:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T00:12:40","slug":"plant-scientists-look-for-trends-in-high-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/09\/16\/plant-scientists-look-for-trends-in-high-places\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Look for Climate Trends in High Places"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mountaintops can be good places to study the effects of climate change because there aren’t any things like\u00a0factories or highways or garden weeds up there. In that way, they’re more like laboratories.<\/p>\n

So, even though it involved a tough hike, about a dozen scientists gathered at the top of Freel Peak near South Lake Tahoe earlier this summer to count every single plant at the summit.\u00a0It was for GLORIA, short for\u00a0Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments<\/a>, a project that sends botanists and plant ecologists to the world’s highest mountains to document the tiny, colorful plants that live on them.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Scientists gather on Freel Peak to take a census of the plants on the summit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GLORIA surveys are repeated every five years, and this was the second survey on Freel Peak. By tracking the changes here, scientists can gain a better understanding of how alpine regions differ in their responses to climate change, and what the future may hold for lower elevations.<\/p>\n

“Because of the nature of the alpine habitat, it is more sensitive to environmental changes,” explained GLORIA coordinator Colin Maher. “It’s kind of a beacon. It\u2019s like a warning sign. We might not know for 20 years what\u2019s happening, but it\u2019s a place where change is more likely to happen and we can detect it.” <\/p>\n

Plus, the plants are cool for their own sake. They’re specially adapted to live in tough conditions, and even though they’re tiny, many of them can live for decades. But they may not be here forever, and Maher said, that’s another reason to study them now.<\/p>\n

“If the climate warms, they\u2019re on an island, essentially. A shrinking island. And since they can\u2019t move down, they can only go up, and that\u2019s only so far,” he said.<\/p>\n

Small Budget, Big Commitment<\/strong><\/p>\n

GLORIA is based in Austria, where it was founded about ten years ago. There is no central funding, and so the tools the scientists use to conduct the surveys are inexpensive: plastic flags, colorful string, school binders. Many of the botanists and ecologists are volunteers. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Connie Millar, a researcher with the U.S. Forest Service, helped bring GLORIA to North America. She got a little choked up talking about the people who come out to help.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“The volunteerism is amazing to me. How people feel committed to it. The excellent botany and the care they give,” she said. “It\u2019s very difficult working on summits. It\u2019s extremely challenging. The commitment is extraordinary.”<\/p>\n

Listen to the companion radio piece<\/a> for this story on The California Report.<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mountaintops can be good places to study the effects of climate change because there aren’t any things like factories or highways or garden weeds up there. In that way, they’re more like laboratories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22,252,430,511,568],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-15289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thescience","tag-alpine","tag-gloria","tag-plants","tag-sierra-nevada","tag-survey"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nScientists Look for Climate Trends in High Places | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2011\/09\/16\/plant-scientists-look-for-trends-in-high-places\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scientists Look for Climate Trends in High Places | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mountaintops can be good places to study the effects of climate change because there aren't any things like factories or highways or garden weeds up there. 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