Contrasting patterns of alpine biodiversity across mountains and taxa worldwide
Abstract
Abstract The alpine biome, located at higher elevations of mountains worldwide, supports unique biodiversity and provides important ecosystem contributions to people. Despite the growing recognition of mountain biodiversity in international policy frameworks, substantial gaps remain in our understanding of how alpine biodiversity varies across mountain systems, undermining estimates of its conservation value and consequently effective conservation strategies. Here, we curate a dataset on alpine biodiversity, incorporating expert-validated data on species’ elevational ranges for vascular plants, mammals, birds, and reptiles across 32 mountain ranges worldwide. We show that alpine biodiversity hotspots are concentrated in Neotropical regions, while most temperate regions represent coldspots with lower species richness. These patterns persist whether considering species with broad elevational ranges or only those strictly confined to the alpine zone. Unlike the classical latitudinal gradient of biodiversity, alpine richness patterns show no consistent relationship with latitude, highlighting the importance of regional history, landscape structure, and biogeographical processes.
Article Details
Authors (45)
Lotta Schultz
Ondřej Mottl
L. Camila Pacheco-Riaño
Eline S. Rentier
Pierre Denelle
Stefan Dullinger
Holger Kreft
Department of Biodiversity, Macroecology and Biogeography, University of Göttingen
Davnah Urbach
Mark Snethlage
Riccardo Testolin
Patrick Weigelt
Department of Environmental Science, Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, Radboud University
Matteo Anderle
Óscar J. Arribas
Addisu Asefa
Santiago F. Burneo
Carlos Daniel Cadena
Brindusa Covaci
Mihai Covaci
Kiraz Erciyas-Yavuz
Jesús A. Fernández
Astghik Ghazaryan
Arash Ghoddousi
Pranav Gokhale
Stephan Halloy
Tigran Hayrapetyan
Muhammad Zafar Khan
Igor Khorozyan
Shai Meiri
Michele Menegon
Joanne Monks
Agustina Novillo
Jairo Pérez-Torres
Donald Reid
Uri Roll
Paras Bikram Singh
Anil Soyumert
Peter John Taylor
Oscar Thomas
J. Nicolás Urbina-Cardona
Sylvain Ursenbacher
Wei Xu
Nigel G. Yoccoz
Dongru Zhang
School of Biological Science and Technology, Liupanshui Normal University, Liupanshui, China.
John-Arvid Grytnes
Suzette G. A. Flantua