Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

How threatened are alpine environments? a cross taxonomic study

Biodiversity and Conservation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Cold-adapted ecosystems are often considered to be stable, species poor, and well protected. However, such ecosystems have been identified as being especially sensitive to threats from global warming. Despite this, recent studies have found low proportions of Red Listed species in these systems. In this study we explored the number of alpine species (dependent on alpine habitats for their survival) and their Red List status in Sweden. We determined the proportion of Red Listed species and explored discrepancies among different groups of organisms in terms of the proportion of Red Listed species and the criteria used for Red Listing. We found a total of 389 alpine species in twelve analyzed species groups. The overall proportion of Red Listed species was 29%, with 15% regarded as threatened. There were substantial differences among taxonomic groups with respect to the proportion of Red Listed species. Among mammals 75% of the species are Red Listed, along with 63% of butterflies and 50% of birds. In addition the single alpine dragonfly species and all three alpine stinging wasp species are also Red Listed. Although beetles, bumblebees and grasshoppers are represented by a total of 17 alpine species, none are Red Listed. In contrast to previous studies, our results show that the proportion of Red Listed species is high in alpine environments, indicating that ecosystems found above the tree line are indeed threatened. No species in Sweden have been Red Listed on the basis of the IUCN criterion E (unfavorable quantitative analysis), this is surprising since entire cold-adapted ecosystems are likely to disappear in the future. We highlight the need for a better and more coordinated application of the IUCN criteria, as well as a more stringent strategy to assess the extinction risks for alpine species, thus maintaining reliable Red Lists.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

References

  • Anonymous (2008) Land use in Sweden, 5 edn. SCB, Statistics Sweden, Stockholm

  • Brito D, Ambal RG, Brooks T, De Silva N, Foster M, Hao W, Hilton-Taylor C, Paglia A, Rodriguez JP, Rodriguez JV (2010) How similar are national red lists and the IUCN Red List? Biol Conserv 143:1154–1158

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christian K, Isabelle L, Frederic J, Vincent D (2009) More species, fewer specialists: 100 years of changes in community composition in an island biogeographical study. Divers Distrib 15:641–648

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dirnböck T, Essl F, Rabitsch W (2011) Disproportional risk for habitat loss of high-altitude endemic species under climate change. Glob Change Biol 17:990–996

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eide W, Aronsson M (2010) The Swedish mountains. In: Gärdenfors U (ed) The 2010 Red List of Swedish species. The Swedish Species Information Centre, SLU, Uppsala, pp 106–112

  • Gärdenfors U (2010a) Barometer of life: national red lists. Science 329:140p

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gärdenfors U (ed) (2010b) The 2010 Red List of Swedish species. The Swedish Species Information Centre, SLU, Uppsala

  • Hallingbäck T (2007) Working with Swedish cryptogam conservation. Biol Conserv 135:334–340

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ims RA, Henden JA, Killengreen ST (2008) Collapsing population cycles. Trends Ecol Evol 23:79–86

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • IUCN (2003) Guidelines for application of IUCN Red list criteria at regional levels: version 3.0. Species survival commission, IUCN, Gland. Switzerland and Cambridge, UK

  • IUCN (2010) IUCN Standards and Petitions Working Group. Guidelines for Using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. Version 8.1. Prepared by the Standards and Petitions Subcommittee in March 2010, IUCN, Gland. Switzerland and Cambridge, UK

  • Kålås JA, Viken Å, Henriksen S, Skjelseth S (eds) (2010) The 2010 Norwegian Red List for Species. Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre, Trondheim

  • Korpimäki E, Brown PR, Jacob J, Pech RP (2004) The puzzles of population cycles and outbreaks of small mammals solved? Bioscience 54:1071–1079

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kotiaho J, Kaitala V, Komonen A, Päivinen J (2005) Predicting the risk of extinction from shared ecological characteristics. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102:1963–1967

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kullman L (2010) A richer, greener and smaller alpine world: review and projection of warming-induced plant cover change in the Swedish Scandes. Ambio 39:159–169

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lamoreux J, Akcakaya HR, Bennun L, Collar NJ, Boitani L, Brackett D, Brautigam A, Brooks TM, de Fonseca GAB, Mittermeier RA, Rylands AB, Gärdenfors U, Hilton-Taylor C, Mace G, Stein BA, Stuart S (2003) Value of the IUCN red list. Trends Ecol Evol 18:214–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindström Å, Green M, Ottvall R, Svensson S (2008) Övervakning av fåglarnas populationsutveckling. Årsrapport för 2007. Department of Animal Ecology, Lund University, Lund

  • Löbell S, Snäll T, Rydin H (2009) Mating system, reproduction mode and diaspore size affect metacommunity diversity. J Ecol 97:176–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mace GM, Collar NJ, Gaston KJ (2008) Quantification of extinction risk: IUCN’s system for classifying threatened species. Conserv Biol 22:1424–1442

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Martin-Lopez B, Gonzalez JA, Montes C (2011) The pitfall-trap of species conservation priority setting. Biodiv Conserv 20:663–682

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller RM, Rodriguez JP, Aniskowicz-Fowler T (2006) Extinction risk and conservation priorities. Science 313:441

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Parmesan C, Yohe G (2003) A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems. Nature 421:37–42

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Post E, Forchhammer MC, Bret-Harte MS, Callaghan TV, Christensen TR, Elberling B, Fox AD, Gilg O, Hik DS, Hoye TT, Ims RA, Jeppesen E, Klein DR, Madsen J, McGuire AD, Rysgaard S, Schindler DE, Stirling I, Tamstorf MP, Tyler Nicholas JC, van der Wal R, Welker J, Wookey PA, Schmidt NM, Aastrup P (2009) Ecological dynamics across the arctic associated with recent climate change. Science 325:1355–1358

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rassi P, Hyvärinen E, Juslén A, Mannerkoski I (2010) The 2010 Red List of Finnish species. Edita Prima Oy, Helsinki

    Google Scholar 

  • Ronquist F, Gärdenfors U (2003) Taxonomy and biodiversity inventories: time to deliver. Trends Ecol Evol 18:269–270

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saetersdal M, Birks HJB, Peglar SM (1998) Predicting changes in Fennoscandian vascular plant species richness as a result of future climatic change. J Biogeogr 25:111–122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Serreze MC, Walsh JE, Chapin FS, Osterkamp T, Dyurgerov M, Romanovsky V, Oechel WC, Morison J, Zhang T, Barry RG (2000) Observational evidence of recent change in the northern high-latitude environment. Clim Change 46:159–207

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Settele J, Kudrna O, Harpke A, Kühn I, van Swaay C, Verovnik R, Warren MS, Wiemers M, Hanspach J, Hickler T, Kühn E, van Halder I, Veling K, Vliegenthart A, Wynhoff I, Schweiger O (2008) Climatic risk atlas of European butterflies. Biorisk 1:1–710

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Swaay C, Maes D, Collins S, Munguira ML, Sasic M, Settele J, Verovnik R, Warren M, Wiemers M, Wynhoff I, Cuttelod A (2011) Applying IUCN criteria to invertebrates: how red is the red list of European butterflies? Biol Conserv 144:470–478

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walther-Hellwig K, Frankl R (2000) Foraging habitats and foraging distances of bumblebees, Bombus spp. (Hym., Apidae), in an agricultural landscape. J Appl Entomol-Zeitschrift fur Angewandte Entomologie 124:299–306

    Google Scholar 

  • Xu JC, Grumbine RE, Shrestha A, Eriksson M, Yang XF, Wang Y, Wilkes A (2009) The melting Himalayas: cascading effects of climate change on water, biodiversity, and livelihoods. Conserv Biol 23:520–530

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zamin TJ, Baillie JEM, Miller RM, Rodriguez JP, Ardid A, Collen B (2010) National red listing beyond the 2010 target. Conserv Biol 24:1012–1020

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We thank the following persons for help with identifying alpine species within different organism groups: B. Andersson, M. Aronsson, B.-Å. Bengtsson, R. Franzén, B. Gullefors, A. Knöppel, L. A. Nilsson, B. Cederberg, T. Hallingbäck, N. Cronberg, E. Öckinger and M. Olofsson. T. Ranius, S. Nakasian and M. Kutzer gave valuable comments on earlier manuscripts. This study supported by FORMAS, Stiftelsen Olle Engkvist Byggmästare and from the European Commission Framework Programme (FP) 7 via the STEP (grant 244090).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Markus Franzén.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOC 40 kb)

Supplementary material 2 (DOC 35 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Franzén, M., Molander, M. How threatened are alpine environments? a cross taxonomic study. Biodivers Conserv 21, 517–526 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-011-0197-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-011-0197-7

Keywords

Navigation