Accelerated increase in plant species richness on mountain summits is linked to warming

Funding

1Section for Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. 2GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Department of Geography and Geosciences, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany. 3Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. 4Landscape Ecology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany. 5WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland. 6CNRS, UMR 7058 EDYSAN, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France. 7GLORIA Coordination, Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW-IGF), Vienna, Austria. 8GLORIA Coordination, Center for Global Change and Sustainability at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU-gW/N), Vienna, Austria. 9Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Torino, Italy. 10School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. 11German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. 12Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. 13Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland. 14Białowiez˙a Geobotanical Station, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Białowiez˙a, Poland. 15W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland. 16Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. 17Department of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria. 18Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE-CSIC), Huesca, Spain. 19International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France. 20Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway. 21Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany. 22School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK. 23Institute of Landscape Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia. 24Department of Landscape Monitoring, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Tromsø, Norway. 25Department for Community Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Halle, Germany. 26Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. 27Environmental Protection Agency of Aosta Valley, Saint-Christophe, Italy. 28Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World (BIOCHANGE), Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. 29Department of Natural Sciences and Environmental Health, University College of Southeast Norway, Bø, Norway. 30Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Oslo, Norway. 31Administration of the Tatra National Park, Svit, Slovakia. 32Bergwelten 21 AG, Davos Platz, Switzerland. 33Centre Alpien de Phytogéographie, Fondation J.-M. Aubert, Champex-Lac, Switzerland. 34Section of Biology, University of Geneva, Chambésy, Switzerland. 35Department of Environmental Systems Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH, Zurich, Switzerland. *e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Acknowledgements We thank D. Barolin, J. Birks, A. Björken, C. Björken, S. Dahle, U. Deppe, G. Dussassois, J. V. Ferrández, T. Gassner, S. Giovanettina, F. Giuntoli, Ø. Lunde Heggebø, K. Herz, A. Jost, K. Kallnik, W. Kapfer, T. Kronstad, H. Laukeland, S. Nießner, M. Olson, P. Roux-Fouillet, K. Schofield, M. Suen, D. Watson, J. Wells Abbott, J. Zaremba and numerous additional helpers for fieldwork support; P. Barancˇok, J. L. Benito Alonso, M. Camenisch, G. Coldea, J. Dick, M. Gottfried, G. Grabherr, J. I. Holten, J. Kollár, P. Larsson, M. Mallaun, O. Michelsen, U. Molau, M. Pus¸cas¸, T. Scheurer, P. Unterluggauer, L. Villar, G.-R. Walther, and numerous helpers for data originating from the GLORIA network13; C. Jenks for linguistic support; and the following institutions for funding. M.J.S.: Danish Carlsbergfondet (CF14-0148), EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie action (grant 707491). C.R., V.S., S.W.: Velux Foundation, Switzerland. C.R., V.S., S.W., J.-P.T., P.V.: Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). A.K.: Swiss National Science Foundation (31003A_144011 to C.R.), Basler Stiftung für biologische Forschung, Switzerland. J.K.: Fram Centre, Norway (362202). J.K., J.-A.G., P.C., B.J.: Polish-Norwegian Research Programme of the Norwegian National Centre for Research and Development (Pol-Nor/196829/87/2013). O.F.-A., M.J.H., S.P.: Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses (Huesca, Spain). S.D.: Austrian Climate Research Programme (ACRP, project 368575: DISEQU-ALP). F.J.: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland; Alpine Garden Society, UK. M.J.H.: Felix de Azara research grant (IBERSUMIT project, DPH, Spain). R.K.: Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV 0866-12). S.N., D.G.: VILLUM Foundation’s Young Investigator Programme (VKR023456; Denmark). S.P.: Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2013-14164, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain). J.-C.S.: European Research Council (ERC-2012-StG-310886-HISTFUNC); VILLUM Investigator project (VILLUM FONDEN grant 16549; Denmark). S.W.: WSL internal grant (201307N0678, Switzerland); EU FP7 Interact Transnational Access (AlpFlor Europe). S.W., S.B., F.J., M.J.H.: Swiss Botanical Society Alpine Flower Fund. Time and effort was supported by sDiv, the Synthesis Centre of iDiv, Germany (DFG FZT 118, sUMMITDiv working group). J.L., S.N., H.P., P.V. and M.W. elaborated the concept; A.K., S.W., M.B.-D., H.P., C.R., P.V. and M.W. organized and harmonized data; M.J.S. implemented the data analyses with support from other authors, particularly S.W., J.-A.G., J.L., J.-C.S., S.D. and D.G.; E.B., S.B., F.T.B., P.C., M.A.D., A.D., B.E., V.A.F., O.F.-A., K.F.F., D.G.-G., E.T.G., J.-A.G., S.V.H., H.H., M.J.H., B.J., F.J., R.K., K.K., J.K., A.L., M.M., U.M.d.C., A.O., S.L.O., S.P., H.P., M.P., V.P., B.S., K.S., V.S., C.R., G.T., J.-P.T., P.V., S.J.W., S.W and N.E.Z. contributed data. M.J.S. led the manuscript writing, with contributions from all authors.