Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments

The Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA) established an international long-term monitoring program and site-based network dealing with high-mountain vegetation and its biological diversity.

Its purpose is the in-situ observation and comparative assessment of alpine biodiversity patterns under the impact of accelerating anthropogenic climate change.

[1]The idea to monitor alpine plant communities in the context of anthropogenic climate and global change was first discussed in 1996 during a workshop of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme in Kathmandu.

In consequence, the GLORIA monitoring approach was initiated by the Austrian ecologists Georg Grabherr, Michael Gottfried and Harald Pauli at the turn of the century, by running experiments in alpine habitats to determine what a good sample method might be.

At each location, vascular plant species and abundances are to be recorded in standardized permanent plots of different size at intervals of 5 to 10 years, along with continuous measurements of soil temperature.