High mountains in latitude life zones: a worldwide perspective

• Main Authors: Nagy, Laszlo, Grabherr, Georg
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressOxford 2009
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica; Arctic; Siberia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198567035.003.0002; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52367445/isbn-9780198567035-book-part-2.pdf

Abstract High mountains occur across all continents, from the Arctic to as far as 55°S, disregarding Antarctica (Fig. 2.1), in all broadly defined latitude zones (arctic, boreal, temperate, subtropical, and tropical) (Table 2.1). The definition of these broad latitude zones follows a simple model of a presumed climate effect, temperature, in particular, on living organisms from the Equator to the poles. However, there are difficulties in generalizing even simple temperature–vegetation latitude zone models. For example, a well-fitting Europe-wide model that uses annual mean temperatures to delineate vegetation zones (Ozenda 1994) has little applicability when extended to the scale of Eurasia, or beyond (Fig. 2.2). Temperature depends not only on the distance from the Equator, but indirectly, on the distance from the oceans; continentality is an important factor that results in such cold winters in Siberia that the annual temperatures average below zero there. According to the simple model in Fig. 2.2, this would cause a temperature climate akin to that in the Arctic. A much-refined pattern in variability is observed when a measure of growing season length is introduced (Fig. 2.3). In addition to temperature, the amount of precipitation, both in absolute terms, and relative to temperature and vegetation cover is important for living things. The main areas that have an arid or desert climate are shown in Fig. 2.4.