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 by Staff Writers Wurzburg, Germany (SPX) Apr 08, 2019
2019 marks the 250th anniversary of Alexander von Humboldt. He was one of the first naturalists to document the distribution and adaptation of species on tropical mountains in the 19th century. Humboldt also observed that high mountains represent a microcosm of the earth's climate zones. Today, his scientific findings are more relevant than ever. In a world threatened by climate change, tropical mountains are centers of biodiversity and as such they are important refugia for plants and animals. These organisms perform vital functions such as carbon storage, nutrient retention in soil, water supply, pollination and pest control. But tropical mountain regions are increasingly under threat by the spread of agriculture and overexploitation.
Nature publishes results of the study The results of the study have been published in Nature. It took the 50 researchers from 30 universities and research institutes in Germany, Tanzania, Switzerland, Denmark and South Africa six years to collect the data.
About land use on Kilimanjaro The research team studied species richness of plants, animals and microorganisms as well as ecosystem functions like soil nutrient contents, pollination and leaf decomposition at elevations between 850 and 4,550 meters. "The present study is unique in terms of the number of recorded species groups and ecological functions, the number of studied sites and the elevation gradient from tropical savanna to Afroalpine ecosystems," says Professor Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter who initiated the study.
Different interactions between climate and land use "In the savanna zone at the foot of the mountain, up to 50 percent of species are lost even when land use is moderate and the functionality of ecosystems exhibits significant changes. In contrast, the ecosystems at medium elevations with a moderate climate are slightly more robust," Peters explains. He says that although biological communities still suffer major changes, the overall biodiversity and ecological functionality are less severely affected than in the savanna areas at the foothills of Kilimanjaro. "Our study shows that the impact of land use on the biodiversity and functionality of ecosystems is strongly correlated with the climatic context." This is highly relevant for understanding land use and climate change on mountains but also in a world threatened by climate change: Studies at different montane elevation zones can help make more accurate predictions of how climate change will impact natural habitats and systems used by humans.
Supporting sustainable use is crucial "Our study underpins that different drivers of global change cannot be addressed separately; the impact of land use is also influenced by the climatic situation and vice versa," says Steffan-Dewenter and he adds: "We hope that our study will contribute to a better understanding of how global environmental changes affect biodiversity and ecological functions on tropical mountains and will help to preserve these unique ecosystems in the long run."
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