UC EVENTS

Alpine ecosystems around the world are threatened due to climate change. The presence of pollinators is critical for the reproduction of many alpine plant species, however the shrinking of alpine ecosystems and changes in species phenologies might drive a rapid decline of plant-pollinators interactions that we are unaware. In this talk, I will present results of our research investigating the effects of climate change in alpine plant-pollinator communities as well as our current challenges. We have analysed changes of a plant-pollinator community in the Australian Alps using as a baseline plant-pollinator community data collected 30 years ago and comparing it to recent data. We have also used both traditional methods (flower-visitor observations) and novel approaches (pollen DNA metabarcoding) to quantify plant-pollinator network structure. Overall we found evidence suggesting that climate change is altering alpine plant-pollinator community composition and structure, and the shrinking of Australian alpine ecosystems.