Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy.
School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA.
Glob Chang Biol. 2021 Apr;27(8):1504-1517. doi: 10.1111/gcb.15510. Epub 2021 Jan 28.
Mountains are global biodiversity hotspots where cold environments and their associated ecological communities are threatened by climate warming. Considerable research attention has been devoted to understanding the ecological effects of alpine glacier and snowfield recession. However, much less attention has been given to identifying climate refugia in mountain ecosystems where present-day environmental conditions will be maintained, at least in the near-term, as other habitats change. Around the world, montane communities of microbes, animals, and plants live on, adjacent to, and downstream of rock glaciers and related cold rocky landforms (CRL). These geomorphological features have been overlooked in the ecological literature despite being extremely common in mountain ranges worldwide with a propensity to support cold and stable habitats for aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity. CRLs are less responsive to atmospheric warming than alpine glaciers and snowfields due to the insulating nature and thermal inertia of their debris cover paired with their internal ventilation patterns. Thus, CRLs are likely to remain on the landscape after adjacent glaciers and snowfields have melted, thereby providing longer-term cold habitat for biodiversity living on and downstream of them. Here, we show that CRLs will likely act as key climate refugia for terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity in mountain ecosystems, offer guidelines for incorporating CRLs into conservation practices, and identify areas for future research.
山脉是全球生物多样性热点地区，那里的寒冷环境及其相关生态群落正受到气候变暖的威胁。人们已经投入了相当多的研究注意力来理解高山冰川和雪场退缩的生态影响。然而，人们很少关注确定山区生态系统中的气候避难所，这些避难所目前的环境条件将得到维持，至少在短期内是这样，而其他栖息地则在发生变化。在世界各地，微生物、动物和植物的高山群落生活在岩石冰川和相关冷岩地貌（CRL）的附近和下游。尽管这些地貌特征在世界范围内的山脉中非常普遍，并且倾向于为水生和陆生生物多样性提供寒冷和稳定的栖息地，但它们在生态文献中却被忽视了。由于其碎屑覆盖层的隔热性质和热惯性以及内部通风模式，CRL 对大气变暖的响应速度比高山冰川和雪场慢。因此，在相邻的冰川和雪场融化后，CRL 很可能会留在景观中，从而为生活在它们之上和下游的生物多样性提供更长期的寒冷栖息地。在这里，我们表明 CRL 很可能成为山区生态系统中陆地和水生生物多样性的关键气候避难所，为将 CRL 纳入保护实践提供指导，并确定未来研究的领域。
