[...]... u Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria Andreas Holzinger Austria Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Michael Kuhn Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria Ursula Ladinig Walter Larcher Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria Institute of Botany, LTUI, Innsbruck, Austria Ilse Larl Institute... Ilse Larl Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria Cornelius L€tz u University of Innsbruck, Institute of Botany, Innsbruck, Austria xi xii Contributors Institute of Microbiology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Rosa Margesin Austria Stefan Mayr Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria... Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria Gilbert Neuner Lavinia Di Piazza Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria Daniel Remias Institute of Pharmacy/Pharmacognosy, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria Peter Schmid Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria Harald K Seidlitz Department Environmental Engineering, Institute of Biochemical Plant Pathology, Helmholtz... snow cover and the onset of convection in alpine regions in May and June, concentrations of sulfate, nitrate and ammonium at high altitude more than double and total loads increase by more than a factor of five considering the increase in concentration and the simultaneous increase in monthly precipitation (Fig 1.4) The physical and chemical processes that redistribute ions in the seasonal snow pack... measured in standard weather stations were À36 C to À37 C (Steinhauser 1954; Cappel 1977) These temperatures are of course isolated extremes Most of the absolute minimum air temperatures of the free atmosphere in winter range from À18 C to À24 C in the alpine zone and reach as low as À30 C in glacier regions During winter the plants are protected against these low temperatures by a layer of snow... various valleys of the Eastern Alps as shown in Fig 1.3 The annual course of the increase of precipitation with elevation shown in Fig 1.3 reflects the varying frequencies of advective and convective precipitation In winter and spring the Fig 1.3 The increase of annual precipitation with elevation, expressed as % per 100 m elevation Bars indicate upper and lower limits of 10 hydrological basins (Kuhn 2010)... the station in the valley (Gr€bner et al 2000) o As an example of the combined effect of solar elevation and altitude as discussed in 1.4.1 and 1.4.2, Fig 2.3 compares the results of measurements of erythemally weighted UV irradiance (Gery) and of total global irradiance (Gtot) at the High Alpine Research Station Jungfraujoch in Switzerland (3,576 m) and in Innsbruck (577 m) The envelope of the seasonal... index values up to 20 were observed in cities at high altitude in the Andeans 2 Solar Radiation of the High Alps In Fig 2.5 the data for daily maximum values (expressed in the units of the UV index) are analysed as monthly averages (broad bars) for all available years of measurements In addition, the thin bars indicate the maximum value of the UV index in each month, observed in any of the years of. .. of bioclimate temperatures from the life zones in the local area of the Austrian Alps that have been recorded in the context of scientific studies on plants in high mountains: temperature thresholds and heat sums must be reached for vegetative development and reproductive processes (flowering and seed development) of alpine forbs (Gentianella germanica: Wagner and Mitterhofer 1998), grasses and graminoids... Climate in Mountain Regions 3.2.1 Air Temperatures in Mountain Regions Air temperatures decrease with increasing elevation In the Alps, the temperatures of the free atmosphere drop, according to the adiabatic lapse rate, by an annual mean 0.55–0.62 C per 100 m and during the summer ca 0.60–0.65 C per 100 m from the bottom of the valley to the high mountain regions (Franz 1979) C L€tz (ed.), Plants in Alpine . L € utz Editor Plants in Alpine Regions Cell Physiology of Adaption and Survival Strategies SpringerWienNewYork Editor Prof. Dr. Cornelius L € utz University of Innsbruck Faculty. participation and effort in presenting their data. I hope that this book expands the information on cell physiology of alpine/ polar plants including the connection