Uncovering the patterns and processes of plant life on Great Basin summits

This article was originally published in The Midden – Great Basin National Park: Vol. 25, No. 1, Summer 2025.

A group of GLORIA Great Basin researchers collecting data on alpine plants on the north aspect of the summit of Wheeler Peak. Plots are placed in the same location on summits at five-year intervals following an internationally standardized protocol, allowing scientists to trace change in plants.

NPS/G. Baker

by Kaleb A. Goff, PhD Candidate, North Carolina State University

Plants thrive on the tops of the tallest mountains in Great Basin National Park. This is well-understood by mountaineers, ridge-runners, and the hundreds of visitors that make the long journey to the top of Wheeler Peak during summer. Plants at high elevations are often long-lived and have amazing adaptations that allow them to tolerate strong sun, whistling winds, and frozen nights.

A group called GLORIA Great Basin, composed of hearty volunteers, Great Basin National Park staff, and scientists make the trek to mountain summits around the park every five years to better understand and bear witness to some of the most resolute plants in the world. These forays are part of an international effort known as GLORIA (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments), started in 2001 in Austria and now on every continent except Antarctica, with the goal of documenting changes in mountaintop plant communities over long periods of time. In the summer of 2024, GLORIA Great Basin visited Buck Mountain, Bald Mountain, Wheeler Peak and Pyramid Peak, their fourth visit to these summits over nearly 20 years (previous visits include 2008, 2013, and 2018). In each visit, data is carefully collected on what plant species are present and the abundance of each species. We also deploy soil temperature loggers that continuously record temperature at 1-hour intervals.

So, what has been happening way up there over all those years? Over the 17-year period that GLORIA Great Basin has been monitoring peaks in Great Basin National Park, there have been small increases in the numbers of species found on each summit (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Number of unique plant species (species richness) on mountain summits across the four survey years and four peaks in Great Basin National Park. From this, we can see that the number of species has increased a small amount over the 17-year period.

The average turnover, or the number of new species (gained) plus the number of species not seen (lost) between two sequential surveys on the same peak was ~30%, indicating that the plant communities on these summits can be fairly different from survey to survey, with some species disappearing and others appearing. Four out of the seven species with the greatest numbers of gains were grasses, suggesting that grass species might be increasing on these summits.

The Snake Range is one of eight mountain ranges being monitored by GLORIA Great Basin across Western North America. In a recent publication, we synthesized data from 29 summits across these 8 regions, including the four summits from Great Basin National Park (Goff et al. 2025). When we looked across all the summits, we again found that there has been little change in the number of species on these summits over time. Differences between two sequential surveys’ species lists were about 22% on average, lower than the results from Great Basin National Park. While these results from Great Basin National Park, and the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin regions more broadly, tell a consistent story of limited change over nearly two decades, these results are considerably different than what has been found by researchers on other continents. In Northern Europe, species richness has increased substantially on summits, indicating that in cool wet places (like those in Northern Europe), mountain summits are becoming easier places for more species of plants to live. In the arid American West, conditions are harsh on summits, and if conditions become more arid over time these places could become even more difficult for plants to live. We might even expect species richness to decrease in our mountains if the temperature increases and precipitation decreases.

Some of the spectacular mountaintop plants of Great Basin National Park. Left: Great Basin alpine sandwort (Eremogone congesta var. simulans). Middle: Snake Range wild buckwheat (Eriogonum holmgrenii). Top right: Western rosewort Rhodiola integrifolia. Bottom: Parry’s primrose (Primula parryi).

1. Kaleb A. Goff, 2. NPS/Gretchen Baker, 3. Peri Lee Pipkin, 4. NPS/Margaret Horner

Beyond these scientific curiosities, there is no better place for inspiration, adventure, and beautiful plants than on the summit of a peak in Great Basin National Park in July. GLORIA Great Basin plans to survey these peaks again in 2029, and we would love to have you along with us.

Literature Cited:
Goff, Kaleb A., Meagan F. Oldfather, Jan Nachlinger, Brian V. Smithers, Michael J. Koontz, Catie Bishop, Jim Bishop, Mary T. Burke, and Seema N. Sheth. 2025. Limited directional change in mountaintop plant communities over 19 years in western North America. Ecosphere 16(3): e70197. Link