Abstract
Climate change and the anthropic emission of pollutants are likely to have an accelerated impact in high-elevation mountain areas. This phenomenon could have negative consequences on alpine habitats and for species of conservation in relative proximity to dense human populations. This premise implies that the crucial task is in the early detection of warning signals of ecological changes. In alpine landscapes, high-elevation forests provide a unique environment for taking full advantage of epiphytic lichens as sensitive indicators of climate change and air pollution. This literature review is intended to provide a starting point for developing practical biomonitoring tools that elucidate the potential of hair-lichens, associated with high-elevation forests, as ecological indicators of global change in the European Alps. We found support for the practical use of hair-lichens to detect the impact of climate change and nitrogen pollution in high-elevation forest habitats. The use of these organisms as ecological indicators presents an opportunity to expand monitoring activities and develop predictive tools that support decisions on how to mitigate the effects of global change in the Alps.
Highlights
It is widely recognized that global change will impact ecosystems and society considerably [1,2].The impact of global processes, including climate change and the anthropic emission of pollutants, is likely to accelerate for high-elevation mountain areas [3]
We found support for the practical use of hair-lichens to detect the impact of climate change and nitrogen pollution in high-elevation forest habitats
Recent research has demonstrated that lichen-based monitoring methods can be effective in detecting the effects of climate change and nitrogen pollution [74]
Summary
It is widely recognized that global change will impact ecosystems and society considerably [1,2]. The impact of global processes, including climate change and the anthropic emission of pollutants, is likely to accelerate for high-elevation mountain areas [3] This phenomenon could cause negative consequences in the European Alps, which host high-priority habitats and species for conservation while sustaining a relatively dense human population whose activities include summer and winter tourism, traditional agriculture, forest exploitation, and water extraction for energy production [4]. This scenario invokes the crucial task of detecting early warning signals of changes that can affect ecosystem stability and, in turn, human well-being in the alpine zone. The review includes a brief description of the main patterns of climate change and nitrogen pollution in the European Alps, while its core focus is on the lichen-climate and lichen-nitrogen pollution relationships with special emphasis on hair-lichen species (see Section 3)
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