Anthropocene trajectories of high alpine vegetation on Mont-Blanc nunataks

Abstract

Climate warming causes dramatic glacier retreat and intense vegetation changes in alpine regions. High-elevation nunataks, that is bedrock islands protruding from glaciers with upper-most flowering plants, are no exception. Yet the consequences of climate change on nunatak vegetation remain relatively unexplored. Here, we report findings from a re-visit of historical plant surveys carried out on six nunataks situated between 2180 m a.s.l. and 3509 m a.s.l. amidst the glaciers of the Mont-Blanc range (France). We compared vegetation surveys conducted in 2020 to those made 150 years before, and performed remote sensing analyses to depict changes in vegetation productivity during recent decades. We report an increase in plant species richness for the lowest and least isolated nunataks, which contributed to a strong signal of vegetation greening over the last 35 years. This trend was due to the upward migration of competitive species, but also due to species colonization from neighboring high alpine areas into recently unglaciated microsites. We also highlight striking ecological trajectories that have been little discussed so far, such as stable vegetation composition in the highest and most isolated nunataks, an increase of plant species associated with non-permanent snow-cover and water run-off, an increase of graminoids at lower elevations, and of phanerophytes at higher elevations. We argue that high alpine vegetation changes are not driven by the sole upward migration of lowland competitive species, and that careful monitoring of ongoing ecological changes over broad elevation gradients is necessary to better understand the rapid transformation of high alpine landscapes.