Elevation gradients

• Main Authors: Nagy, Laszlo, Grabherr, Georg
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressOxford 2009
• Subjects: Arctic; Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198567035.003.0003; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52367447/isbn-9780198567035-book-part-3.pdf

Abstract There are striking changes in vegetation from lowlands to high mountain-tops, similarly to that from the Equator towards the poles. These changes entail a reduction in the structural and floristic diversity of ecosystems and a reduction in biomass from the tall lowland forests to low stature alpine heaths, or arctic tundra. The simplification in structure and the trends in species richness and biomass have been related primarily to a reduction in temperature alone, or in combination with other climatic and physiographic factors in alpine environments (e.g. Theurillat et al. 2003). Harsh mountain climate is locally ameliorated by glacial geomorphic landscape features, which contribute much to habitat diversity, and vegetation and species diversity patterns. To appreciate fully the scale of changes in vegetation (and climate) along an altitude gradient there is no better place to start than in the rainforest, at the foot of an equatorial high mountain (Table 3.1). From evergreen rainforest at near sea level, one can scale the range of montane forest and treeless alpine formations and reach high mountain tops, capped by glacial ice.