This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The flora of the Alps is changing: Species are moving to higher elevations, new plants are appearing and others are disappearing. In the Flora Raetica project, the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, together with partner organizations and volunteer citizen scientists, is investigating how climate change is affecting plant diversity in Graubünden—and comparing present-day findings with records from almost a century ago.
"Here we have mat-grass," says Christian Rixen, "and this is alpine vernal grass, which is responsible for the lovely smell of hay." He holds the plant in his hand. The root gives off a faint scent of turpentine. Further down the slope, cows are grazing.
Their bells jingle on this Wednesday morning in August. The sun is slowly rising above the ridge. But Rixen has eyes only for the flora around him: "Oh, mountain buttercup—that hasn't been recorded here for three years.
And the alpine sedge over there hasn't been observed here for 13 years. And alpine toadflax—we've never had that here before." Rixen is a botanist at the SLF, and this morning he is completely in his element. He is co-leader of the Flora Raetica project.
In the early 1930s, botanists Josias Braun-Blanquet and Eduard Rübel documented the flora of Graubünden. In this project, Rixen is investigating which species have appeared since then, which have disappeared and how their regional distribution has shifted. Today, he is working below the Jatzhorn near Davos.
There, at elevations between 2,400 and 2,500 meters (7,870 and 8,200 feet) above sea level, lies one of the project's 1,104 "flash squares." He uses the term for the 100-by-100-meter (328-by-328-foot) survey plots that project staff check between one and three times to see which plant species are growing there. Rixen points to some green leaves on the ground and explains the procedure: "You go to a square and write down everything you find. To give you an example, here's a spotted gentian." "Write down" isn't quite the right way to describe it, though.
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