For 29 years, scientists warmed a mountain meadow by 2°C; shrubs increased 150% while mycorrhizal fungi declined | - The Times of India
For 29 years, researchers artificially warmed a subalpine meadow at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado, to examine how sustained temperature increases affect ecosystems above and below ground. The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in February 2026 in a study titled Experimental warming decouples plant-fungal symbiont interactions and leads to a more conservative ecosystem, showed that warming shifted the vegetation from a forb- and graminoid-dominated community towards one dominated by shrubs, while changing the fungal communities associated with plants and soil.