Deyeuxia angustifolia (Komarov) Y. L Chang is an herb species originating from the birch forests in the Changbai Mountain. Recently, this species has been found encroaching into large areas in the western slopes of the alpine tundra in the Changbai Mountain, threatening the tundra ecosystem. In this study, we systematically assessed the response of the rhizosphere soil microbial to D. angustifo...

The Alpine region is warming fast, and concurrently, the frequency and intensity of climate extremes are increasing. It is currently unclear whether alpine ecosystems are sensitive or resistant to such extremes. We subjected Swiss alpine grassland communities to heat waves with varying intensity by transplanting monoliths to four different elevations (2440-660 m above sea level) for 17 d. Half ...

While the upward shift of plant species has been observed on many alpine and nival summits, the reaction of the subalpine and lower alpine plant communities to the current warming and lower snow precipitation has been little investigated so far. To this aim, 63 old, exhaustive plant inventories, distributed along a subalpine-alpine elevation gradient of the Swiss Alps and covering different pla...

Understanding the key aspects of plant regeneration from seeds is crucial in assessing species assembly to their habitats. However, the regenerative traits of seed dormancy and germination are underrepresented in this context. In the alpine zone, the large species and microhabitat diversity provide an ideal context to assess habitat-related regenerative strategies. To this end, seeds of 53 spec...

Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 20, No. 9, September 2014 1571 Although persistence of B. melitensis in wild ruminants has not been reported, and these animals are considered an epidemiologic dead-end reservoir (3), the unexpected prevalence observed (≈50%) suggests that Alpine ibex could be the source of bovine brucellosis reemergence in the study area in France. Strict s...

To understand effects of soil microbes on soil biochemistry in alpine grassland ecosystems under environmental changes, we explored relationships between soil microbial diversity and soil total nitrogen, organic carbon, available nitrogen and phosphorus, soil microbial biomass and soil enzyme activities in alpine meadow, alpine steppe and cultivated grassland on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau unde...

As ground nesting homeotherms, alpine and arctic birds must meet similar physiological requirements for breeding as other birds, but must do so in more extreme conditions. Annual spring snowfall and timing of snow melt can vary by up to 1 month and daily temperatures near the ground surface vary from below freezing to over 45°C in alpine and arctic habitats. Species breeding in these environmen...

We tested whether alpine plants increase their effort to attract pollinators to compensate for assumed pollinator scarcity at high altitude. A three times larger fraction of the shoot was allocated to flowers in alpine plants (30 species, 2700 m asl) compared to lowland plants (20 species, 600 m asl), while leaf mass fraction did not differ between the altitudes. At high elevation, a three time...

This study investigated the influence of alpine grazing on vitamin D (vitD) and bone metabolism in sheep and goats. Two groups of five adult lactating East Friesian milk sheep and Saanen dairy goats were kept on pastures at 2,000 to 2,600 m a.s.l. (SA: sheep alpine; GA: goats alpine) and 400 m a.s.l. (SL: sheep lowland; GL: goats lowland). The animals were milked twice daily and the milk yield ...

This study investigated the influence of alpine grazing on vitamin D (vitD) and bone metabolism in sheep and goats. Two groups of five adult lactating East Friesian milk sheep and Saanen dairy goats were kept on pastures at 2,000 to 2,600 m a.s.l. (SA: sheep alpine; GA: goats alpine) and 400 m a.s.l. (SL: sheep lowland; GL: goats lowland). The animals were milked twice daily and the milk yield ...