The International Long-Term Ecosystem Research network (ILTER) includes national networks of scientists and their stakeholders engaged in long-term, site-based ecological, social and economic research. The LTER-Italy network, established in 2006, joined ILTER in 2007. The “Apennines (high elevation)” site joined LTER-Italy in 2007. It consists of “orographic islands” of alpine tundra along the Apennines chain, where many endemic and rare taxa occur that are critically endangered by climate warming. Therefore, the aim of the site is to monitor the evolution of the high elevation ecosystems relatively to global change.
Monitoring activities with the help of permanent plots occur in four research stations of the GLORIA network (GLobal Observation Research Initiative in Alpine environments), in two research stations of the CLIMECO network (Study of effects of CLImate change on mountain ECOsystems) and in two other sites in central Apennines. The studied abiotic parameters are air and soil temperatures, rainfalls, historical series of climatic data, snow cover, presence, distribution and dynamics of relict permafrost, dynamics of soil organic matter, gaseous emissions from soil. Vegetation monitoring is done through fine scale relevés (abundance, cover) of the vascular flora along elevation and horizontal gradients, digital vegetation mapping (CLC and EUNIS types) and population analysis of some of the most sensitive species to global warming.
In the central Apennines, soil annual mean temperature shows a mean increase of 0.08°C per year for the period 2001-2005. This trend is in line with the IPCC predictions that indicate an increase of mean temperature of 0.2 °C for the next decade. Since 1993, observations show a 10-20% change in species composition, an increase in coverage values of drought- and stress-tolerant species, a decrease of coverage values of microtherm, mesophilous and competitive species. Moreover, since 2001, an increase of species richness (+4%) is observed in the GLORIA sites. The eastern aspects, that have the highest diversity, are particularly affected by the upward coming of subalpine species and the disappearance of some alpine species. In Northern Apennines, a decrease of snow cover and clear degeneration processes are observed in chionophile species since 1999.