After examining more than 300 mountain peaks scattered across Europe, the researchers found that over the past 10 years, five times more plants have migrated to the summits compared to the period from 1957-1966. Since the middle of the 19th century, mountain peaks have warmed up about twice as much as the surface of the Earth as a whole (its temperature has increased by 1 degree Celsius).
- The plant world has become significantly richer at all the peaks considered, - concluded Sonia Wipf, team leader of 53 scientists at the Institute for the Study of Snow and Avalanches in Davos, Switzerland. - This enrichment has been especially rapid in the last 20-30 years.
However, such an abundant bloom can also have adverse effects on the environment, scientists warn.
- Even if the plant world becomes more and more diverse, it is not at all a fact that such trends will persist for a long time, - says Jonathan Lenoir, an expert on biostatistics at the National Center for Scientific Research in France. “We may face a delayed negative impact on local flora if migrated plants displace more fragile species for which the highlands are their habitual habitat.
The emergence of new plant species on mountain peaks is part of a period of global change known in the scientific community as the "Great Acceleration".