A large part of mountain forests in France are threatened by climate change, according to a study

Among the 19 forest ecosystems assessed in the mountain and sub-alpine environments of the different mountain ranges of France and Corsica, ten appear to be threatened.

The finding is alarming. More than half of the mountain forests of France and Corsica assessed as part of the red list of ecosystems of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are threatened by climate change, according to a published study , Thursday January 23.

Among the 19 types of mountain forest ecosystems assessed, all located in mountain and subalpine environments (at altitudes between 600 and 2,400 m depending on the slopes), ten appear to be threatened (none in critical danger, but two in danger and eight vulnerable), and six as near threatened, the level just below in terms of collapse risk. Two others are “minor concern” and another is ultimately not evaluated due to lack of sufficient data.

The red list of ecosystems, established in 2014, is the equivalent for natural terrestrial, aquatic and marine habitats of the red list of threatened species for wildlife, which is used to measure the collapse of biodiversity. Its evaluation criteria depend on a framework common to all continental European countries.

In detail, subalpine cembray (Stone pine forests) and larch (larch forests), as well as subalpine beech, fir and beech-fir forests, are the two types of ecosystems classified as endangered.

Five mixed forests, a mixture of common beech, white fir, or common spruce, a fir and spruce forest and two mountain pine groves are classified “vulnerable”.

In any case, “the context of climate change is a determining factor in the results of this assessment”assures the study. In mountainous or pre-mountainous environments, temperature increases tend to be more marked than in the plains, leading in particular to a “increased water deficit”.

Thus in the French Alps and Pyrenees, the temperature increased by +2°C during the 20th century, compared to +1.4°C in the rest of France, according to Météo-France.