Studies have observed that over the past 10 years, the climate crisis has already caused vegetation to rise about 50 meters and that over the past 40 years plants have migrated up to 200 meters and have had to undergo changes in temperature, sunlight exposure, carbon dioxide availability and-most importantly lower atmospheric pressure. “The effects of temperature and more intense solar irradiance are fairly well known. However, what changes in pressure will do to plant growth, is still largely unknown,” El Omari explains.
Anyone who has hiked in the mountains knows how breathless you get at elevation and how different breathing can be at 1,500 or 2,500 m.a.s.l ̶ as the pressure decreases so does the oxygen in the air. This is because the column of air above you, gradually becomes shorter and weighs less.
Although there have been several investigations on people’s physiology and adaptation to high altitude, the effects on plants have until now, not been studied. One of the reasons is that plants don’t really move, the other ̶ in nature, it’s impossible to analyze an isolated parameter, for that you need a climate chamber.
This is precisely why, in the civil sector, Upshift is the only project of its kind.
Colleagues Harald and Mario and two students who applied as volunteer assistants following a lecture at the University of Innsbruck help Silvia and Bouchra load the precious cargo onto the pickup truck. The climate journey for the 240 seedlings is about to begin.