Climate change is a major problem for environment and numerous models are developed in order to predict future evolution of vegetation. Atmospheric pollution is susceptible to change vegetation as well (nitrogen deposition for example). In mountains, agriculture exploitation decreases, pastures are abandoned and forest is increasing.
All these factors will influence vegetation and an extensive network of permanent plots is certainly one of the most useful tools to monitor and understand the changes. For this reason, five transects were established in Canton of Vaud and Valais in 2005-2006. Each transect extends from lowland to summits, with forest plots and dry grassland plots every 100 m in elevation (see bibliography Pellissier et al. 2010).
Altogether, these five transects total 66 plots in dry grasslands and 55 in forests, distributed in four biogeographic regions.