Plant traits measured for Australian alpine plants

Rapid evolution is likely to be an important mechanism allowing native
species to adapt to changed environmental conditions. Many northern
hemisphere species have undergone substantial recent changes in phenology
and morphology. However, we have little information about how native
species in the southern hemisphere are responding to climate change. We
used herbarium specimens from 21 native alpine plant species in Kosciuszko
National Park, Australia to make over 1500 measurements of plant size,
leaf thickness, leaf mass per area, leaf shape and leaf size across the
last 126 years. Only two out of 21 species (9%) showed significant changes
in any of the measured traits. The number of changes we observed was not
significantly different to what we would expect by chance alone, based on
the number of analyses performed. This lack of change is not attributable
to methodology – an earlier study using the same methods found significant
changes in 70% of species introduced to south-east Australia. Australia’s
native alpine plants do not appear to be adapting to changed conditions,
and because of the low elevation of Australia’s mountains, they do not
have much scope for uphill migration. Thus, our findings suggest that
Australia’s native alpine plants are at even greater risk in the face of
future climate change than was previously understood.