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With biodiversity and rates of climate change among the highest, the eastern Himalaya are critical for understanding the interaction of these two variables. However, there is a dearth of longitudinal data sets that address the effects of climate change on the exceptional alpine biodiversity of the Himalaya.

We established permanent alpine vegetation monitoring plots in three mountain chains of the Hengduan Mountains, the easternmost Himalaya, which have warmed 0.03–0.05°C yr⁻¹ since 1985. Recently, we resampled plots (176 1‐m² quadrat plots and 88 sections of 11 summits in three Hengduan mountain chains) to measure changes in vegetation after 7 years.

Over 7 years, Tibetan alpine vegetation increased in number of species (+8 species/summit; +2.3 species/m²), in frequency (+47.8 plants/m²), and in diversity (+1.6 effective species/m²). Stepwise …