News
Reduced Snow Cover and Shifting Vegetation Are Disrupting Alpine Ecosystems, Study Finds
Climate change is disrupting the nitrogen cycle between some plants and soil microbes, bringing “false springs” during the day that leave plants more vulnerable to frigid nights.
By Moriah McDonald
Reduced snow cover and vegetation shifts in the Alps, driven, to some degree, by climate change, are leading some mountain ecosystems to struggle to hold onto nutrients that feed vegetation, a new study shows.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
State of Play
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.