Appennino settentrionale - Italy

The site consists of “orographic islands” with high elevation vegetation in central Mediterranean basin, along the Apennines mountain range, within the Appennino Tosco-Emiliano National park and partially in the Appennino Modenese Regional park. It includes 64 permanent plots for plant species monitoring, distributed from timberline zone to the subalpine/alpine belt (1722-2000 m), that belong to the GLORIA project’s world network (GLobal Observation Research Initiative in Alpine ecosystems); The plots lie at the top of four summits, displayed along an altitudinal gradient, chosen following the GLORIA Target Region selection criteria. Furthermore, other 26 permanent plots, detached from the GLORIA project, have been settled on mount Prado. The observation and the long-term monitoring of vegetation and alpine plant species population started in 1999. The collection of soil temperature and osmotic potential started in 2001 and 2013, respectively. The site is resurveyed regularly to collect vegetation data (in term of presence/absence and coverage) and climatic data (temperature and osmotic potential data series recorded every 30 minutes by data loggers) in order to assess impacts of climate change on plant communities and single plant species of interest.