Alpine plants may be at risk
Mountain environments around the globe are experiencing warmer temperature, receding glaciers, and earlier seasonal snow pack melt.   Alpine plants, like those found on Mount Washington, are in a climate-limited environmentand may be particularly sensitive to these changes in temperature and precipitation.  The alpine areas where these plants are found in the Northeastern US are distributed as small isolated islands surrounded by a sea of inhospitable spruce-fir forests and will be limited to shifts up in altitude for survival.   As these plants migrate upwards, they will be faced with reduced amounts of habitat, or may disappear completely.

Northeast mountains: climate change buffered by clouds
In the unique mountain alpine areas of the Eastern U.S., treeline is 1,000s of feet lower than in the Western U.S. Treeline is driven less by annual temperatures and more by high winds and clouds that result in rime ice that inhibits trees from growing where they are exposed to these harsh conditions.  The same conditions that drive tree line, frequent clouds, may be responsible for buffering the top of Mount Washington from the same regional warming found at lower elevations.  The temperature records on Mount Washington, NH show that this region is not warming at the same rate seen across the Northeastern US (Learn more>>).  Detectable warming trends observed at a mid-elevation site, Pinkham Notch, indicate that the mountains may only lag behind the regional temperature increases.  If greenhouse gas emissions are not quelled, Mount Washington could see more severe changes. 

What YOU can do to help us learn more!
The AMC's Mountain Watch program is aimed at enlisting your help in documenting whether similar changes in plant flowering are occurring in the mountains of the Northeast. We are looking for hikers to act as citizen scientists by simply observing and documenting the flowering times of target species. If you would like to contribute to this regional baseline of data on your next hike, click here to learn more.