Accelerated increase in plant species richness on mountain summits is linked to warming (original) (raw)

Globally accelerating trends in societal development and human environmental impacts since the mid-twentieth centuryare known as the Great Acceleration and have been discussed as a key indicator of the onset of the Anthropocene epoch. While reports on ecological responses (for example, changes in species range or local extinctions) to the Great Acceleration are multiplying, it is unknown whether such biotic responses are undergoing a similar acceleration over time. This knowledge gap stems from the limited availability of time series data on biodiversity changes across large temporal and geographical extents. Here we use a dataset of repeated plant surveys from 302 mountain summits across Europe, spanning 145 years of observation, to assess the temporal trajectory of mountain biodiversity changes as a globally coherent imprint of the Anthropocene. We find a continent-wide acceleration in the rate of increase in plant species richness, with five times as much species enrichment betwe...