The GLORIA field manual : Standard Multi-Summit approach, supplementary methods and extra approaches

GLORIA, the “Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments”, is a long-term observation programme and a rapidly growing international research network to assess climate change impacts on the biological richness of the planet’s high mountain ecosystems. A widely applied sampling design, such as the Multi-Summit Approach described here, is an essential prerequisite for collecting comparable data from different mountain regions around the world. This publication is the fifth and fully revised edition of the GLORIA field manual. The manual contains the detailed description of GLORIA’s basic and standardised sampling design, the Multi-Summit Approach, with complete guidelines of the required procedure from site selection, setup and recording to data compilation. Moreover, it includes supplementary optional methods and a description of additional activities that are ongoing or have been recently initiated in the frame of GLORIA. The field manual represents the technical description of GLORIA approaches; it does not include considerations on data analysis or on how to report the results to the scientific community and to the public.