Mountain regions are unusually biodiverse, with rich aggregations of small-ranged species that form centers of endemism. Mountains play an array of roles for Earth's biodiversity and affect neighboring lowlands through biotic interchange, changes in regional climate, and nutrient runoff. The high biodiversity of certain mountains reflects the interplay of multiple evolutionary mechanisms: enhanced speciation rates with distinct opportunities for coexistence and persistence of lineages, shaped by long-term climatic changes interacting with topographically dynamic landscapes. High diversity in most tropical mountains is tightly linked to bedrock geology-notably, areas comprising mafic and ultramafic lithologies, rock types rich in magnesium and poor in phosphate that present special requirements for plant physiology. Mountain biodiversity bears the signature of deep-time evolutionary and ecological processes, a history well worth preserving.
1.Univ Copenhagen, GLOBE Inst, Ctr Macroecol Evolut & Climate, Copenhagen, Denmark 2.Imperial Coll London, Dept Life Sci, Ascot SL5 7PY, Berks, England 3.Univ Southern Denmark, Danish Inst Adv Study, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark 4.Royal Bot Gardens, Richmond TW9 3AE, Surrey, England 5.Gothenburg Global Biodivers Ctr, SE-41319 Gothenburg, Sweden 6.Univ Connecticut, Dept Ecol & Evolutionary Biol, Storrs, CT 06269 USA 7.Univ Colorado, Museum Nat Hist, Boulder, CO 80309 USA 8.Univ Copenhagen, Nat Hist Museum Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark 9.Univ Copenhagen, GLOBE Inst, Sect GeoBiol, Copenhagen, Denmark 10.Univ Oxford, Sch Geog & Environm, South Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3QY, England
Recommended Citation:
Rahbek, Carsten,Borregaard, Michael K.,Antonelli, Alexandre,et al. Building mountain biodiversity: Geological and evolutionary processes[J]. SCIENCE,2019-01-01,365(6458):1114-+