When one takes a look at any satellite image of the Earth’s surface, the very first thing that one notices – besides all the water, of course – are the mountains. There is a good reason for that – mountainous landscape covers 27 per cent of the planet’s surface. Mountains with elevation characteristics above sea level and steep slopes support 20 per cent of the world’s population at their edges. Mountains are more diverse than lowlands as they support habitat diversity due to different topoclimates.
With an understanding of how critical ecosystem services are to human society, it would not be difficult to equate mountain conservation with the well-being of humankind. Mountain ecosystems are essential to providing ecosystem services such as clean water, healthy vegetation cover, food and fibre, medicinal plants, prevention of soil erosion, and flood control among others. Mountains exemplify high cultural diversity, including traditional agricultural practices and languages, as well as indigenous and traditional knowledge.
The high biological and sociocultural diversity makes the mountain ecosystems extremely vulnerable. Apart from being subjected to different natural and anthropogenic drivers of change such as logging and subsequent erosion, flooding events, climate change, acid deposition through snow and rainfall, and other unsuitable farming practices, they also get affected by earthquakes, volcanic activity, cloudburst, and landslides. The fact remains that greater altitudes are so cold that it takes longer for plants and animals to grow and regions to recover from decline, whether of natural or human origin.
Mountains – Biodiversity Hotspots
This story is from the December 2019 edition of TerraGreen.
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This story is from the December 2019 edition of TerraGreen.
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