Prof. Bogdan Jaroszewicz, co-author of a publication in Nature

20 03 2026

Prof. Bogdan Jaroszewicz from the Białowieża Geobotanical Station is a co-author of a publication about the way climate change affects the species composition of plants in European ecosystems. The paper, titled “Contrasting thermophilization among forests, grasslands and alpine summits”, was published in the prestigious journal Nature.

The study is the first comparison of how changes in plant species composition take place in three different types of environments: forests, grasslands and mountain summits. European plant communities are gradually being transformed by climate warming, and species adapted to colder conditions are being replaced by warm-loving species.

The publication was based on analyses of more than six thousand plant surveys carried out at least twice, with intervals ranging from several years to several decades. This made it possible to show the nature of biodiversity changes across many parts of Europe, from Ireland to Ukraine and from Norway to Spain.

The research shows that the rate of change in plant communities is slower than the rate of climate warming. This creates a “climatic debt,” which is the difference between the current state of vegetation, meaning its species composition, and the state predicted on the basis of present climate conditions. One consequence of this climatic debt is a high probability of faster changes in vegetation composition in the future, as species catch up with shifts in their geographic ranges. The speed of these changes will differ depending on local conditions.

A comparison of current data with historical records showed that the three studied ecosystem types respond to climate warming in different ways. Vegetation on mountain summits is changing about five times faster than vegetation in forests and grasslands, which is consistent with the highest warming rates observed in mountain areas. Changes in mountain summit vegetation are mainly caused by the gradual disappearance of species adapted to low temperatures, because their ability to migrate to cooler regions is limited. In grassland ecosystems, change is mainly driven by the expansion of warm-loving species. In forests, however, the process is more complex and involves both the decline of cold-adapted species and the appearance of warm-loving ones.

These observations help us better understand the processes responsible for changes in European nature over the last few decades. They show that each type of environment responds in its own way and that, to explain these differences, it is necessary to take into account more factors than temperature alone, including land management, soil condition, environmental pollution, and changes in the amount and pattern of rainfall.

Congratulations!

Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09622-7

Cover photo: www.vecteezy.com/members/gorengan