Alpine vegetation: upward climb

From glaciers, let's move on to plants to explain the phenomenon of climbing plants. Almost 50% of the park's territory is located above 2,500 meters, a kingdom of cliffs, drifts, and perennial snow. However, the retreat of glaciers is leaving more and more room for pioneering vegetation such as Saxifraga oppositifolia, a small plant that grows in the shape of a cushion to resist the wind and the weight of snow. It is capable of colonizing moraine debris as early as the following year after the glacial regression since it settles and develops in the rocky cracks. Its name suggests it because it means sax/stone and frangĕre/to break.
In the park, there is permanent monitoring of this phenomenon in three study areas, including the Loson glacier area here in the Cogne Valley: the study areas are fixed and delimited by stakes and, through repeated counts, the variations in the number of plant species that colonize the moraines and the space occupied by them are measured. Such monitoring reveals that the colonization of vegetation in recent years has been dozens of times faster than forecast models, probably due to the effects of the climate crisis, with high summer temperatures, even at high altitudes, and longer warm seasons than in the past. The most evident changes take place right near the glacial front despite the seemingly inhospitable environment.
If you have binoculars, look under the glaciers. They are not all rocks; they are full of plants!