Alpine Plant Diversity and Temperature on 123 European Mountain Summits

A study of vascular plant species on 123 summits across 32 European regions, with resurvey data from 17 regions and 6-year soil temperature series. The dataset likely contains records of species cover and temperature sums analyzed to assess the impact of aspect and microclimate on plant diversity, colonisation, and disappearance. The research was conducted by a cooperation involving OGD Österreich and Wikimedia Österreich.

Use Cases

• Modeling plant species diversity based on aspect and temperature differences described in the study
• Analyzing climate-induced colonization patterns on Mediterranean and temperate mountains as discussed
• Studying the relationship between solar radiation, temperature sums, and species richness on alpine summits

Strengths

• Data collected from 123 summits across 32 regions in Europe, providing a pan-European scale
• Includes resurvey data and a 6-year soil temperature series for a subset from 17 regions
• Analysis based on permanent plots in each cardinal direction, suggesting structured sampling

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified

Provenance

Source

Cooperation OGD Österreich, Wikimedia Österreich

Collection Method

Vascular plant species and their percentage cover were recorded in permanent plots in each cardinal direction on summits; differences were analyzed using linear mixed-effects and generalised mixed-effects models.

Geography

Mountain summits in Europe’s Alpine Life Zone