Stefan Dullinger

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Animals and plants are trying to evade climate change by migrating to cooler habitats. This strategy works as long as cooler habitats are available or almost available within their range. This applies, in particular, to alpine plants that are already growing at the highest alpine and nival altitudes. On the other hand, the microclimate near the ground that is decisive for these low-growing alpine plants can vary greatly over a short distance at such high altitudes. Therefore, it is unclear whether in times of climate change the high altitudes of mountains are a dead end for the plants growing there or whether the great microclimatic diversity rather provides an excellent opportunity to migrate to alternative habitats. Together with his team comprising employees of the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Stefan Dullinger aims to find an answer to this question. In his ERC project, the researchers combine long-term observation data, methods in remote sensing, experiments and computer simulations.