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The impact of climate change on alpine biodiversity discussed at the ALPARC Workshop

Monday, 15 September 2014

From 10th  to 11th  September 2014, protected areas managers and scientists discussed the role of protected areas to document the climate changes on alpine biodiversity at  the ALPARC international workshop  at  the Gran Paradiso National Park (IT) .

The visitor center of the Gran Paradiso National Park in the ancient Grand Hotel in Ceresole Reale was an imposing setting for the ALPARC Workshop, organized with the Gran Paradiso National Park on “Monitoring biodiversity transformation to document climate change impacts in alpine protected areas”. From 10th to 11th of September 2014 the Workshop brought together around thirty experts and scientists from the different alpine Countries.

The presentations clearly showed the importance and the broadness of the topic of biodiversity monitoring in regard to the process of climate change.
The examples presented in the indoor session, pictured well diversity of monitoring possibilities and methodologies: flora (ex. monitoring network for Caricion bicoloris atrofuscae) and fauna (ex. methods for bird monitoring in Bavarian Alps) but also lakes (Lacs sentinelles) and plant phenology (e-Pheno). Furthermore an historical excursus illustrated the use of historic records from the early alpine botanists to documents climate change impacts.  


The speakers and discussion highlighted the need of international cooperation in the field of the climate change impacts and biodiversity. Protected areas play a particular role and can act as laboratories for this kind of research as they dispose of trained staff for observations and samplings, good infrastructure to facilitate the monitoring duty and a long term visibility for the monitoring plots.


The outdoor session was the occasion for a demonstration of the monitoring protocol developed by various Italian parks and scientists to monitor animal biodiversity in mountain ecosystems. The Gran Paradiso National Park Rangers made this event memorable not only because of the scientific and technical quality of this field excursion but also thanks to their extraordinary polenta served in the spectacular setting of the ancient hunting cabin of King Victor Emmanuel II.

Below the PowerPoint presentations shown during the Workshop « Monitoring biodiversity transformation to document climate change impacts in alpine protected areas”.
Please note that the presentation of Sonja Wipf is not online. If you are interested in the presentation, please contact directly the author at : sonja.wipf (at) slf.ch

ALPARC - The Alpine Network of Protected Areas

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