The distribution of climbing chalk on climbed boulders and its impact on rock-dwelling fern and moss species

Rock climbing is popular and the number of climbers rises worldwide. Numerous studies on the impact of climbing on rock-dwelling plants have reported negative effects, which were mainly attributed to mechanical disturbances such as trampling and removal of soil and vegetation. However, climbers also use climbing chalk (magnesium carbonate hydroxide) whose potential chemical effects on rock-dwelling species have not been assessed so far. Climbing chalk is expected to alter the pH and nutrient conditions on rocks, which may affect rock-dwelling organisms. We elucidated two fundamental aspects of climbing chalk:

Its distribution along non-overhanging climbing routes was measured on regularly spaced raster points on gneiss boulders used for bouldering (ropeless climbing at low height). These measurements revealed elevated climbing chalk levels even on 65% of sampling points without any visual traces of climbing chalk.
The impact of climbing chalk on rock-dwelling plants was assessed...

攀岩运动深受爱好者青睐，全球攀岩参与者人数持续攀升。此前已有诸多针对攀岩对岩生植物影响的研究，均报道了其负面影响，这些影响主要归因于踩踏、土壤与植被移除等机械扰动。然而，攀岩者在活动中会使用攀岩镁粉（climbing chalk，氢氧化镁碳酸酯），目前尚未有研究评估其对岩生物种的潜在化学影响。研究推测，攀岩镁粉会改变岩石表面的pH值与营养状况，进而可能对岩生生物造成影响。本研究阐明了攀岩镁粉相关的两个核心方面：其一，我们针对无悬垂攀岩线路沿线的攀岩镁粉分布开展了测量，测量点位设置于用于抱石攀岩（bouldering，低高度无绳索攀岩）的片麻岩巨砾的规则间隔栅格点位上。测量结果显示，即便在65%未出现任何可见攀岩镁粉痕迹的采样点中，其镁粉含量也处于升高水平。其二，我们针对攀岩镁粉对岩生植物的影响开展了评估……