Climatic changes threaten the diverse and highly endemic páramo flora of the equatorial Andes with species loss and reduction of plant community diversity. Edward Whymper’s findings in his botanical exploration of the Ecuadorian Andes in 1880 offer an opportunity to examine the impact of climate changes on species distribution over time. To achieve these goals, we revised Whymper’s historical plant species collections, recorded elevational distribution of the same species along his 1880 sampling routes on two volcanoes, Chimborazo and Antisana, and applied to them ecological indicator values. Of the species recorded by Whymper, 24 on Antisana and 21 on Chimborazo, we resampled 21 and 14 of those species, respectively, in 2020. The highest record we found on Chimborazo was at 5385 m, seven meters above the zero-richness elevation predicted from Whymper’s distribution data, and at 4937 m on Antisana, 113 m below it. Mean upper range limits of species have shifted upward by 91.7 m on Chimborazo and by 27.1 m on Antisana, suggesting mean shift rates of 6.6 m and 1.9 m per decade, respectively. This rate of upslope migration ranks among the slowest reported worldwide. Humidity ecological indicator values suggest that species composition of páramo plant communities changed since 1880 in response not only to rising temperature, but also increasing dryness. Rather than a uniform upslope migration, the response of páramo plants to climate changes in the equatorial Andes has been species-specific, likely driven, among other factors, by coupled effects of increasing temperature and declining humidity.

气候变化威胁着赤道安第斯山脉多样化且高度特有的帕拉莫植物群，导致物种丧失和植物群落多样性减少。爱德华·温珀 (Edward Whymper) 于 1880 年对厄瓜多尔安第斯山脉进行植物学探索，结果为研究气候变化对物种分布随时间的影响提供了机会。为了实现这些目标，我们修订了 Whymper 的历史植物物种收藏，记录了沿他 1880 年采样路线在钦博拉索火山和安蒂萨纳火山上同一物种的海拔分布，并对其应用了生态指标值。在 Whymper 记录的物种中，安蒂萨纳有 24 个物种，钦博拉索岛有 21 个物种，我们在 2020 年分别对其中 21 个和 14 个物种进行了重新采样。我们在钦博拉索岛发现的最高记录为 5385 m，比预测的零丰富度海拔高出 7 米来自 Whymper 的分布数据，位于 Antisana 上 4937 m，低于它 113 m。钦博拉索岛的物种平均上限向上移动了 91.7 m，安蒂萨纳岛的物种上限向上移动了 27.1 m，表明平均移动率分别为每十年 6.6 m 和 1.9 m。这种向上迁移的速度是全球报告中最慢的。湿度生态指标值表明，自 1880 年以来，帕拉莫植物群落的物种组成发生了变化，不仅是因为气温上升，而且是因为干旱加剧。赤道安第斯山脉帕拉莫植物对气候变化的反应不是均匀的上坡迁移，而是物种特异性的，除其他因素外，可能是由温度升高和湿度下降的耦合效应驱动的。