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High mountain environments are often characterised by low temperatures and short growing seasons, yet support high plant endemism and biodiversity. While such ecosystems are considered among the most vulnerable to climatic warming, the impacts of climate change on diversity and composition can be complex. To develop a deeper understanding of these dynamics, changes in vegetation over time along five alpine summits that are part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environment (GLORIA), were assessed including species richness, α-diversity, β-diversity, vegetation and growth form cover as well as composition. The five summits of Mount Clarke in the Australian Alps were surveyed in 2004, 2011 and 2019. Despite increases in species richness over time, there was an overall decline in diversity through biotic homogenisation across the summits. Near complete vegetation cover was recorded in 2004 but increased over the 15 years via in-filling and densification, driven by increasing cover of graminoids and shrubs. Consequently, there was also a shift in species composition which was greatest at higher elevations. The results indicate that there has been a shift towards more competitive and thermophilic composition, which may have implications for flammability in a warming and drying climate. Further assessments will be required to more fully explore the effect of climate variation from climate change, and implications for conservation of this and other alpine floras globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is occurring and not being mitigated, motivating adaptation but adaptation strategies can have biophysical, economic, technological, and social limits. We review publicly available documents to assess how successful current and proposed adaptation strategies may be for the Australian Alps, including likely limits and potential collaborations and conflicts among stakeholders. Conservation managers, the tourism industry, and local communities have implemented or are proposing a range of adaptation strategies in the region. Some stakeholder strategies complement each other (e.g. invasive species control, fire management), while others are potential sources of conflict (water and electricity for snowmaking, year-round tourism). Economic costs and biophysical constraints are the most important limits to these adaptation strategies. These types of limits and conflicts between different stakeholders on adaptation strategies are likely to occur in other regions and demonstrate that adaptation may only provide partial and short term solutions to the challenges of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism in ski resorts depends on snow cover which is expected to decline with climate change. This paper explores hypotheses about demand side responses to climatic change by analyzing patterns of visitation in recent years with differing snow cover. Snow cover and visitation patterns to six resorts which differ in altitude and size in Victoria, Australia, were compared between a slightly warm and much drier year (2006, +0.6°C and -50% precipitation to longer-term averages) to a more typical year (2007) and to nine earlier years. Snowmaking partly offset declines in natural snow cover in 2006, although there were still fewer days with snow on the ground. The number of visitor days was much lower in 2006 than the previous nine years for the three lowest-altitude resorts (-69%), while it actually increased (+10%) in the highest altitude resort where there were fewer visitors (-17%), but they stayed longer. Snowmaking is already critical for ski resorts in low snow years. With warmer conditions, lower-altitude resorts may not receive enough income due to reduced visitation to offset snowmaking costs, while higher-altitude resorts may have a short-term gain, but become uneconomical in the longer term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Back-country camping is a popular ecotourism activity in protected areas, including in Australia. Few studies have, however, used a manipulative experimental approach to quantify the impacts of camping. Here the impacts of four people camping for three nights on intact tall alpine herbfield and subalpine grasslands in the Australian Alps were quantified. Campsites were divided into three zones (tent, activity and control). Camping only caused decreases in vegetation height and cover in the tent and activity zones with only height effects still significant 6 weeks post-camping. This suggests that these alpine communities are relatively resistant to short-term camping activities by small groups. When the impacts of camping were compared with those from trampling experiments run concurrently, it is apparent that once these communities are damaged by recreation use, they are slower to recover. With consideration to this, dispersed and minimal impact practices should continue to be encouraged, as inappropriate behaviour (such as fire scars, cuts to trees, litter) and repeated campsite use may result in lasting damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Alps, which are of high conservation value, are popular summer bushwalking destinations. Experimental trampling trials using a standardized methodology were conducted to determine the resistance and resilience of the two common vegetation types: tall alpine herbfield and subalpine grasslands. Vegetation parameters were measured in lanes subject to control (no trampling), 30, 100, 200, 500 and 700 passes at five sites prior to trampling, immediately post trampling, 2weeks, 6weeks and 1year post trampling. Vegetation height, cover of graminoids and herbs, as well as net species richness all declined with trampling, while litter cover increased. Thresholds for damage varied between the two communities and among the different vegetation parameters. The resistance indices for the two communities (number of passes resulting in 50% reduction in vegetation cover), however, were similar at around 440–450 passes indicating that these two communities are among the most resistant of the 19 alpine–subalpine communities that have been tested around the world, but only of moderate resistance compared to non-alpine communities. The two communities showed limited recovery with damage still evident 1year post trampling. This indicates that they have only moderate tolerance to damage due to moderate resistance, but low resilience. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]