Arctic alpine plants may survive in small pockets of cold, disturbed ground even if rising temperatures drive them from the rest of their habitat, according to researchers.
Typical Arctic alpine species, such as white Arctic mountain heather, mountain avens, and Diapensia lapponica, thrive in cold temperatures. But they are not as competitive or as responsive to changes in their environment as their lowland cousins.
However, Miska Luoto of Finland's University of Helsinki says cold "micro refuges" could stop the plants being swamped by crowberry, dwarf birch and juniper – more vigorous species that are set to move up hillsides and further north as climate warms. Luoto has spent three summers studying vegetation near Kilpisjärvi in Lapland, around 300 km north of the Arctic Circle....
Such depressions would then act as microrefugia – small hideouts, maybe just a few metres across – for cold-requiring species as climate warms, buying them extra time before extinction looms.
"Being able to shift just a small distance means that the outlook for these species is maybe not as bad as forecast, but it doesn't change the fact that the populations would be seriously affected by climate change," said le Roux. "Even if cold-requiring or cold-tolerant species are able to continue existing on a certain hill, they might end up being much less connected to other populations of the same species, which has all sorts of implications for genetic diversity."
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