Alpine Ecosystems

• Main Author: Körner, Christian
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2001
• Subjects: Arctic; Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npg.els.0003492; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1038/npg.els.0003492; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1038/npg.els.0003492

Abstract Of all land area of the globe (about 151 million km 2 ), the alpine life zone covers around 3% or 4.5 million km 2 , which is one‐third less than the area of the vegetated arctic life zone of North America and Eurasia (largely tundra). The alpine life zone (just as the arctic life zone) is treeless, hence its lower boundary is the climatic, high elevation treeline. Its upper boundary is the upper limit of plant life. Both these boundaries are fragmented and represent gradual transition zones. The alpine zone covers a suite of ecosystems (e.g. grass and shrub heathlands), microhabitats (e.g. rock crevices and springs) and isolated outposts of life.