Overview of habitat history in subtropical oceanic island summit ecosystems
Summit ecosystems of oceanic islands constitute one of the most ephemeral and isolated ecosystems existing, harboring specific features that confer on their biota an outstanding distinctness. Summits are short-lived entities, being the last ecosystems to be constructed during the growth of the new o...
Published in: | Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research |
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Online Access: | http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/18114 https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-46.4.801 |
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ftunilalaguna:oai:riull.ull.es:915/18114 2023-05-15T14:14:18+02:00 Overview of habitat history in subtropical oceanic island summit ecosystems Fernández-Palacios, José María Otto, Rüdiger Thébaud, Christophe Price, Jonathan 2014 http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/18114 https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-46.4.801 en eng Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, Vol. 46, No. 4, 2014; http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/18114 doi:10.1657/1938-4246-46.4.801 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess CC-BY-NC-ND Ecosistemas Islas oceánicas subtropicales Ecosystems subtropical oceanic island info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2014 ftunilalaguna https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-46.4.801 2021-12-31T16:14:10Z Summit ecosystems of oceanic islands constitute one of the most ephemeral and isolated ecosystems existing, harboring specific features that confer on their biota an outstanding distinctness. Summits are short-lived entities, being the last ecosystems to be constructed during the growth of the new oceanic island, and the first to vanish due either to island subsidence, island erosion, or both. Whereas their geological emergence/disappearance is controlled by the volcanic/erosion activity, Pleistocene glaciations in the past million years, by forcing the altitudinal shift of the timberline, have also likely created or destroyed summit ecosystems, enabling the appearance of alpine ecosystems during glacial maxima where they were not present in interglacial periods and vice versa. On the other hand, summit ecosystems constitute islands within islands, being more isolated from climatically similar ecosystems than the coastlines of the islands containing them. Thus summit biota, frequently displaying a high endemicity, may originate either through dispersal from other close summit ecosystems during peak periods, or from the colonization of the summits and later evolution to the new conditions from mid-altitude species of the same island. Conversely, if peak periods are absent, the disappearance of summit ecosystems implies the extinction or extirpation of their constitutive species. Current summit species have likely occupied a much larger area during glacial periods. Thus the summits may be classified as climatic refuges. This is especially the case if glacial periods were associated with much drier conditions on oceanic islands as is the case on continents. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarctic and Alpine Research Arctic Universidad de La Laguna: Repositorio Institucional ULL Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 46 4 801 809 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Universidad de La Laguna: Repositorio Institucional ULL |
op_collection_id |
ftunilalaguna |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecosistemas Islas oceánicas subtropicales Ecosystems subtropical oceanic island |
spellingShingle |
Ecosistemas Islas oceánicas subtropicales Ecosystems subtropical oceanic island Fernández-Palacios, José María Otto, Rüdiger Thébaud, Christophe Price, Jonathan Overview of habitat history in subtropical oceanic island summit ecosystems |
topic_facet |
Ecosistemas Islas oceánicas subtropicales Ecosystems subtropical oceanic island |
description |
Summit ecosystems of oceanic islands constitute one of the most ephemeral and isolated ecosystems existing, harboring specific features that confer on their biota an outstanding distinctness. Summits are short-lived entities, being the last ecosystems to be constructed during the growth of the new oceanic island, and the first to vanish due either to island subsidence, island erosion, or both. Whereas their geological emergence/disappearance is controlled by the volcanic/erosion activity, Pleistocene glaciations in the past million years, by forcing the altitudinal shift of the timberline, have also likely created or destroyed summit ecosystems, enabling the appearance of alpine ecosystems during glacial maxima where they were not present in interglacial periods and vice versa. On the other hand, summit ecosystems constitute islands within islands, being more isolated from climatically similar ecosystems than the coastlines of the islands containing them. Thus summit biota, frequently displaying a high endemicity, may originate either through dispersal from other close summit ecosystems during peak periods, or from the colonization of the summits and later evolution to the new conditions from mid-altitude species of the same island. Conversely, if peak periods are absent, the disappearance of summit ecosystems implies the extinction or extirpation of their constitutive species. Current summit species have likely occupied a much larger area during glacial periods. Thus the summits may be classified as climatic refuges. This is especially the case if glacial periods were associated with much drier conditions on oceanic islands as is the case on continents. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fernández-Palacios, José María Otto, Rüdiger Thébaud, Christophe Price, Jonathan |
author_facet |
Fernández-Palacios, José María Otto, Rüdiger Thébaud, Christophe Price, Jonathan |
author_sort |
Fernández-Palacios, José María |
title |
Overview of habitat history in subtropical oceanic island summit ecosystems |
title_short |
Overview of habitat history in subtropical oceanic island summit ecosystems |
title_full |
Overview of habitat history in subtropical oceanic island summit ecosystems |
title_fullStr |
Overview of habitat history in subtropical oceanic island summit ecosystems |
title_full_unstemmed |
Overview of habitat history in subtropical oceanic island summit ecosystems |
title_sort |
overview of habitat history in subtropical oceanic island summit ecosystems |
publisher |
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/18114 https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-46.4.801 |
genre |
Antarctic and Alpine Research Arctic |
genre_facet |
Antarctic and Alpine Research Arctic |
op_relation |
Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, Vol. 46, No. 4, 2014; http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/18114 doi:10.1657/1938-4246-46.4.801 |
op_rights |
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-46.4.801 |
container_title |
Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research |
container_volume |
46 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
801 |
op_container_end_page |
809 |
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1766286839286595584 |