Abstract
Mountains are reservoirs of biodiversity whose strong altitudinal gradients over short distances are associated with strong spatial heterogeneity of local environmental conditions. While biodiversity has so far been rather well preserved in mountains due to poor accessibility, predictions of ongoing climate change suggest even more rapid and marked effects in mountains than in plains. My main objective is to understand how global change are impacting the population dynamics of mountain galliformes. My work has shown (1) a strong heterogeneity of demographic strategies between populations of rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) (2) that black grouse populations (Tetrao tetrix) show spatially very heterogeneous trends, influenced by local conditions (3) that for such species that are difficult to count and show strong spatial and interannual variability it is necessary to rely on long-term monitoring to reach a satifactory statistical power to detect a decline.