What is GLORIA?

GLORIA stands for Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments. As climate change persists its effects can be more evident on high elevation ecosystems. Therefore, there has been a global effort to monitor and record the climate change effects on high elevation systems through vegetation monitoring. This data helps manage and plan for healthy, resilient forests. I was lucky enough to help with the vegetation surveying and monitoring effort in the mountains of the Salmon Challis National Forest.

The first day I helped with setting up the plots. We needed to find the exact cardinal directions from the 5 years before, then locate plots based on that information. It did take us a while to find the plots since they are marked with minimally invasive techniques. Then the following day we did a full species list of the survey area and looked very closely to the monitoring sites and set up a surveying method that was unique to me- using a hit method.

I worked along some very talented botanists and had so much fun identifying plants! Here are some photos from my experience.