Résumé
Glacier retreat is accelerating in most mountain regions of the world and additional periglacial areas will become ice-free opening up new ecological spaces for plant colonization, potentially forming new grasslands, shrublands, and wetlands. These deglaciated lands will soon represent a large total land area that scientists and decision-makers need to consider in landscape management policy. This research aims to assess how physical, ecological, and social processes interact to drive ecosystem changes in alpine periglacial landscapes and what this tells us about adaptation to sustain livelihoods and downstream services (Fig.1). The study of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning relies on understanding the micro and meso scale geodiversity of the periglacial landscape. We hypothesize that geomorphological processes and landforms produce microhabitat diversity along alpine slopes. Based on our previous study, held in the Tropical Andes, we consider that the increasing time lag between the velocity of global warming and the slowness of primary succession drive species range shifts and possible species extinctions in alpine regions. We found consistent patterns in plant succession along post-glacial chronosequences. Dispersal limitation, deficient facilitation among plants, and competition processes are limiting factors for primary succession, as well microbial community plays a key role during ecosystem establishment. We now begin to apply a similar methodology to multiples sites in the Andes and Alps, setting up a biogeographical comparison between continents. We focus on functional and experimental approaches to study the patterns of upward migration of alpine plant communities and soil processes. The methodology is based on field sampling, imagery analyses, and field experiments (Fig. 2). Our main hypothesis is that the alteration of alpine plant communities will have potential consequences on ecosystem function, and new post glacier ecosystems won't provide the same services as actual adjacent ecosystems. We aim to understand the relations between shifts in alpine plant community and ecosystem establishment. Ultimately, we plan to experimentalize alpine deglaciated area management methods that can benefit to ecosystem development and facilitate human adaptation to climate change.