Ice‐related landforms in mountain areas have been hypothesized to play a key role in the survival of cold‐adapted species threatened by climate change. However, our understanding of such landforms acting as refugia remains speculative. Here we analyse occurrence data, collected through a standardized sampling at 471 sampling points across the European Alps in relation to landform type and other environmental predictors, to identify the drivers of local presence for 209 high‐elevation plant and arthropod species. Forty‐three species show a negative response to temperature; the occurrence of debris‐covered glaciers and rock glaciers weakens the negative relationship with temperature of nine of them (21%). This finding highlights the role of ice‐related landforms for the survival of an important fraction of species threatened by climate change, although their role is taxon‐related, being maximum for carabid beetles and not observed for spiders. Fine‐scale landscape heterogeneity therefore plays a key role in mediating species responses to climate change. By integrating ecological and geographic perspectives, this study provides a framework for identifying refugia and assessing their biodiversity to target conservation measures for mountain areas worldwide.
Gobbi et al. (Sat,) studied this question.