Recent change of alpine vegetation and plant species richness in the Swedish Scandes

This paper highlights results from monitoring studies in the southern Swedish Scandes, which are integrated into a long-term, regional network. Unfortunately, lack of funding meant that this unique observation programme had to be discontinued last year. This is highly regrettable, since it is increasingly evident that projections of future trajectories of the alpine and subalpine plant cover cannot entirely rely on manipulative field experiments and space-for-time substitute studies. Long-term observational time series, preferably in combination with paleoecological studies, are mandatory and invaluable for the purpose of ecological modeling.