The project ACCLIMATE - Acclimation to Climate Change of Lichens in Mountain Alpine Terricolous Environments

Carolina Stringa Basile ¹, Matilde Tamburelli ², Luca di Nuzzo ³, Elisa Beninato ², Sara Ribotta ², Andrea Vannini ², Sergio Favero Longo ⁴, Elisabetta Bianchi ³, Michele Carbognani ², Daniele Viciani; Alessandro Petraglia; Renato Benesperi; Paolo Giordani ⁵

Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università degli studi di Genova ¹, Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, della Vita e della Sostenibilità Ambientale, Università degli studi di Parma ², Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli studi di Firenze ³, Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biologia dei Sistemi, Università degli Studi di Torino ⁴, Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli studi di Firenze; Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, della Vita e della Sostenibilità Ambientale, Università degli studi di Parma; Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli studi di Firenze; Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università degli studi di Genova ⁵

Climate change significantly impacts the Alps, potentially altering biodiversity and affecting ecosystem functions and services. Species respond to these changes in several ways, including phenotypic acclimation, genetic adaptation, and altitudinal shifts. These responses may be integrated and act at different timescales, with acclimation being observable in the short-medium term. The ACCLIMATE project focuses on testing the acclimation capacity of sensitive species, particularly lichens, to short-term climate changes in alpine ecosystems. Lichens are crucial to alpine environments, sensitive to water availability and temperature changes, making them good indicators of climate change. The project hypothesizes that simulated climate change will reveal significant differences in the acclimation response of lichen species. ACCLIMATE project aims to: develop low-cost technologies for measuring ecophysiological parameters related to the acclimation capacity of species; improve the predictive capacity of process-based models for estimating lichen ecosystem functions by providing measurements of their acclimation to climate change; improve predictive models of the altitudinal shift of species in alpine environments, explicitly considering their physiological acclimation capacity. Manipulative field experiments at the Passo Gavia experimental site (Rhaetian Alps, 2700 m) and laboratory simulations are collecting data on acclimation responses through variation of physiological functional traits, such as photosynthetic efficiency, water content, lichen surface temperature and melanization. These data were obtained by comparing target lichen species under 4 treatments: control (C, no manipulations), warming (W, with Open Top Chambers), drought (D, with Rain-Out Shelters), and warming plus drought (DW, with both ROS and OTC). Ecophysiological data from field and laboratory simulations will be used to parameterize a process-based model to compare current conditions with future climate change scenarios. This model will provide information on the activity period, water retention, and carbon uptake capacity of the examined species. The Gavia experiment will also be integrated with observations of plant, bryophyte and lichen community composition along an altitudinal gradient to relate acclimation capacity to the likelihood of altitudinal shifts in species distribution under future climate scenarios.

Main author career stage: PhD student

Contribution type: Talk

First choice session: 3. Biodiversity and global change

Second choice session: 2. Ecology