Betty Ford Alpine Gardens exhibit in Vail details climate change in ... - Vail Daily

Betty Ford Alpine Gardens exhibit in Vail details climate change in planet’s harshest places | VailDaily.com

Betty Ford Alpine Gardens exhibit in Vail details climate change in planet’s harshest places

Display details climate change observations over centuries
Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, Dominique Taylor/courtesy photo

We often think of global climate change as a relatively modern topic. In fact, scientific observations going back to the 1700s detail vegetation in distinct climatic zones across multiple continents.

Vail’s Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, known for its alpine horticulture, education, and conservation, is in full bloom. Visitors to the Gardens this summer are treated with a special 10-panel exhibit, “Breaking Records: Recording and Collecting Plants from the World’s Coldest and Highest Places,” highlighting the expeditions, botanists, and research from the world’s harshest environments.

Scientists today are returning to these regions to further document evidence of climate change. They are observing high mountains warming faster than lower elevations, declines in the number of frost days, glaciers in retreat, and snow remaining for shorter periods.

Humboldt’s exhibit panel shows a stunning change from what he recorded in 1802. Flash forward to 2012, when scientists revisited Chimborazo, an ice-capped inactive volcano in the Andes, and found that glaciers had retreated more than 1,300 feet in elevation and vegetation was found over 1,400 feet higher than Humboldt’s observations.

“Alpine environments are being disproportionately affected by climate change, especially compared to other ecosystems,” says Nicola Ripley, executive director of Betty Ford Alpine Gardens. “Record-keeping going back in time allows us to document shifts, to see that plants are blooming earlier and setting seed earlier, and this is evidence of climate change.”

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What it tells us

What are our high-alpine plants and pollinators telling us about the changing diversity of our environment, and why should we care?

“We must care, as a garden highlighting alpine and tundra plants, because the mountains and Arctic are being impacted the most,” said Nanette Kuich, education director at the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens. “As temperatures rise, leaf-out and flowering are occurring earlier, affecting the balance of entire ecosystems.”

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Breaking Records illustrates for visitors the accelerated indicators of climate change that we see in plants that have records extending back to the 1400s. Blooms and leaf-out are happening earlier all over the world along with increasing temperatures.

Observing the phenology of the local serviceberries — their life cycle over time — shows that they flower soon after the ground has thawed from a long winter. Native bees depend on this early spring flower for pollen and nectar to feed themselves and their young. Other wildlife counts on serviceberries for sustenance in the fall. But the natural calendar of the serviceberry can be affected by day length, temperature, snowfall, and rain.

The stories of the explorers and scientists depicted throughout the exhibit are fascinating: Joseph Dalton Hooker, for example, born in 1817, was inspired by his closest friend, Charles Darwin, to sign on as an assistant surgeon in the British Navy at just 22 years old. Hooker was the first botanist to visit Antarctica, discovering that the continent was dominated by mosses and lichens in areas not covered by ice. Lichens are known to be good indicators of climate change due to their sensitivity to temperature, air pollution, and moisture changes.

The effects of an ice age

From Dr. Marie Brockmann-Jerosch (1877-1952), a Swiss botanist who studied phylogeography — the distribution of alpine plants in the European Alps — we learn what happens to plants and animals when their habitat is covered by Ice Age glaciers.

In another panel, British mountaineer Eric Shipton collected Cudweed Sawwort at 21,000 feet, the highest documented flowering plant, on a 1935 Mount Everest expedition. However, recent ice cores and tree ring studies taken on the Himalayan Plateau indicate that temperatures have risen 0.6 degrees Fahrenheit over the last century. This warming has intensified glacier shrinkage, an irreplaceable water source for millions.

The Gardens’ Education Center also has fun, dynamic indoor games for children.

In addition to the special exhibit, the Gardens is the 100th institution to join the Climate Toolkit. Led by Philadelphia-based Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, this collaboration is made up of museums, gardens and zoos that want to aggressively address climate change within their own organizations and to inspire the communities they serve. Currently, there are 32 goals for addressing climate change designed to align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Project Drawdown Table of Solutions.

“Here at the Gardens, we like to highlight and promote the tremendous research that has been conducted that documents phenology and climate change,” says Kuich. “Factors related to climate change need to be addressed in order to maintain the healthy ecosystems all life depends on.”