Alpine ecosystems occur above the bioclimatic treeline and support cryophilic plant communities with high endemism, which are governed by low temperatures and short growing seasons. However, the climate of many alpine ecosystems is changing rapidly with warming temperatures, declining snow cover and lengthening growing seasons. Alpine vegetation dynamics in response to changes in climate over recent decades have been observed via long-term ecological monitoring techniques, but such studies are less common in the southern hemisphere including in the marginal alpine ecosystems of the Australian Alps. Therefore, the scale, ecological processes and implications of climate-induced dynamics are less clear for this important ecological, cultural and socioeconomic region. The central aim of this thesis is to understand the responses of vegetation in the largest contiguous alpine area in the Australian Alps, the Kosciuszko alpine area, to climate change over recent decades across varying spatial scales.