Monitoring the impact of climate change and land use change on biodiversity and the functioning of mountain ecosystems

Mountain areas are particularly sensitive to the combined effects of climate change and land use change. Indeed, the climate in mountain areas is warming faster than in other regions, and in Europe, mountains underwent significant reforestation at the beginning of the century. These changes have already led to significant reorganisation of biodiversity, with consequences for the functions and services provided by mountain ecosystems. Future climate change is likely to amplify these reorganisations.

SICCCUB will deepen the description of current and past land use in Orchamp, the space-time observatory of biodiversity and the functioning of mountain socio-ecosystems (Orchamp). This will allow us monitor the dynamics of biodiversity and the functions of these ecosystems over the long term in function of climate change and land use change.

The SICCCUB project will study the relationships between :

• the history of practices and the landscape
• tree recruitment dynamics
• biodiversity and functions.

These functions underpin the production of ecosystem services in terms of wood supply and regulation, such as the regulation of soil quality, the reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and seed dispersal.

Methods

The Orchamp observatory is based on altitude gradients of around 1000 m with permanent plots (30 x 30 m) spaced at around each 200 m of elevation intervals. The observatory also has measurements at landscape and catchment scale, based on remote sensing data and current mapping data.

The SICCCUB project will provide a quantitative description of past and present uses of the plots. “Cartes d’état-major” (drawn up between 1818 and 1866) and the “cadastre napoléonien” (drawn up between 1807 and 1850) will be used to describe past uses around the plots. For more recent uses, old aerial photographs, use and habitat maps, forest management archives and pastoral surveys will be used. 

Monitoring of tree recruitment, a key factor for changes in these ecosystems, and the dynamics of seed production will be analysed. Measurements of above-ground and below-ground biodiversity and of the ecosystem functions provided by soils will be carried out.

The presence of large and very large trees, the quantity and diversity of types of dead wood and the presence of dendro-microhabitats will be analysed in relation to diversity measurements for different groups (flora, fungi, bacteria and insects).

Participants

INRAE units involved

• Département ACT
  • LESSEM  Research Unit - Mountain Ecosystems and Societies Laboratory
  • DYNAFOR Joint Research Unit - Agriforestry Landscape Dynamics and Ecology
• Département ECODIV
  • LESSEM  Research Unit - Mountain Ecosystems and Societies Laboratory
  • EFNO Research Unit - Forest Ecosystems
  • DYNAFOR Joint Research Unit - Agriforestry Landscape Dynamics and Ecology
• Département AGROECOSYSTEM
  • ECO&SOLS Joint Research Unit - Functional Ecology and Biogeochemistry of Soils and Agrosystems

External partnerships

• LECA Joint Research Unit CNRS - Alpine Ecology Laboratory