This question is very relevant because climate change is happening. What will our alpine plant communities do when the temperature increases by 1-2 degrees? A friend of mine works at Victoria University of Wellington on exactly this question. Recently I gave her a hand when setting up a field study on the flanks of Mt Ruapehu. We installed Open Top Chambers (OTCs) to simulate a temperature increase. Normally we were crawling around on all fours looking at plants and trying to identify them, sometimes harvesting biomass for later study. A real bonus for me was the great location, because it gave me the chance to take photos of the ever changing clouds and skies above Mt Ruapehu.