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163 Results Found

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
3,001 Views
13 Pages

17 March 2025

We analyzed elevational species richness gradients (“decline”, “increase”, “unimodal”, or “bimodal”) in the Himalayan range using data from 157 publications covering both plants and animals. Our study t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
338 Views
19 Pages

Simuliids (Diptera: Simuliidae) from Eastern Andalusia (Spain): Update and New Contributions

  • David López-Peña,
  • Matúš Kúdela,
  • Tatiana Kúdelová,
  • Antonio Ricarte and
  • José Vicente Falcó-Garí

2 March 2026

This study enhances and improves the current knowledge of blackfly diversity in the mountainous regions of Eastern Andalusia, with a focus on how simuliid species are distributed through altitude. It provides an updated checklist of species recorded...

  • Article
  • Open Access
10 Citations
8,443 Views
15 Pages

Post-Glacial Spatial Dynamics in a Rainforest Biodiversity Hot Spot

  • Rohan Mellick,
  • Peter D. Wilson and
  • Maurizio Rossetto

20 March 2013

Here we investigate the interaction between ecology and climate concerning the distribution of rainforest species differentially distributed along altitudinal gradients of eastern Australia. The potential distributions of the two species closely asso...

  • Article
  • Open Access
567 Views
17 Pages

30 December 2025

Bumblebees are the most important pollinators in alpine areas. Their survival is vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbance. To comprehend the variation in bumblebee diversity in different habitat types and altitudinal gradient, this study carried out t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
18 Citations
5,421 Views
19 Pages

Enset Production System Diversity across the Southern Ethiopian Highlands

  • Guy Blomme,
  • Elizabeth Kearsley,
  • Sisay Buta,
  • Alemayehu Chala,
  • Ruhama Kebede,
  • Temesgen Addis and
  • Zerihun Yemataw

23 April 2023

Enset is a staple crop of the southern Ethiopian highlands. Small-holder farmers cultivate enset as part of mixed subsistence farming systems, in which enset provides substantial food security services. While its cultivation is unique to this region,...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
1,578 Views
13 Pages

Bias in Discontinuous Elevational Transects for Tracking Species Range Shifts

  • Shixuan Li,
  • Jiannan Yao,
  • Yang Lin,
  • Siyu Wu,
  • Zhongjie Yang,
  • Chao Jin,
  • Yuhan Zhang,
  • Zhen Wang,
  • Jinliang Liu and
  • Mingjian Yu
  • + 1 author

20 January 2025

Climate change is compelling species to seek refuge at higher elevations and latitudes. While researchers commonly study these migrations using discontinuous elevational transects, this methodology may introduce significant biases into our understand...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1,484 Views
19 Pages

13 September 2025

Soil health and fertility are essential components of sustainable land management. In Bhutan, where agricultural practices range from organic to conventional systems, and natural vegetation areas persist across varied elevations. Understanding how th...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
3,373 Views
11 Pages

5 January 2023

Climate is critical for plant altitudinal distribution patterns. Non-climatic factors also have important effects on vegetation altitudinal distribution in mountain regions. The purpose of this study was to explore the current distribution of plant d...

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
4,187 Views
9 Pages

Ecophysiological Plasticity and Cold Stress Adaptation in Himalayan Alpine Herbs: Bistorta affinis and Sibbaldia procumbens

  • Inayat Ur Rahman,
  • Robbie Hart,
  • Aftab Afzal,
  • Zafar Iqbal,
  • Abdulaziz A. Alqarawi,
  • Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah,
  • Abeer Hashem,
  • Farhana Ijaz,
  • Niaz Ali and
  • Eduardo Soares Calixto

27 September 2019

Plants have evolved several metabolic pathways as a response to environmental stressors such as low temperatures. In this perspective, it is paramount to highlight physiological mechanisms of plant responses to altitudinal gradients as a proxy to eva...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1,043 Views
10 Pages

17 August 2025

Investigating altitudinal distribution patterns of species richness represents a fundamental research objective in biogeography and community ecology. Hainan Island has tropical rainforests ranging from sea level to >1800 m a.s.l., with various an...

  • Abstract
  • Open Access
1,237 Views
1 Page

The pattern of earthworm diversity along altitudinal gradients has rarely been investigated. The aim of the current study was to examine the patterns of earthworm diversity on the western slopes of Kopaonik Mountain. Earthworms were sampled in four-m...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
4,399 Views
13 Pages

4 February 2020

Physiological thermal limits of organisms are linked to their geographic distribution. The assessment of such limits can provide valuable insights when monitoring for environmental thermal alterations. Using the dynamic critical thermal method (CTM),...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
484 Views
15 Pages

Understanding how plant community characteristics and soil properties vary along altitudinal gradients is essential for ecosystem conservation, restoration, and for predicting ecosystem responses to global environmental change. This study investigate...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
2,682 Views
15 Pages

The altitudinal patterns of soil fungi have attracted considerable attention; however, few studies have investigated the diversity and community assembly of fungal functional guilds along an altitudinal gradient. Here, we explored ectomycorrhizal (Ec...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
2,530 Views
12 Pages

8 September 2021

In maize, we studied the causes of genome size variation and their correlates with cultivation altitude that suggests the existence of adaptive clines. To discuss the biological role of the genome size variation, we focused on Bolivian maize landrace...

  • Article
  • Open Access
11 Citations
3,975 Views
13 Pages

5 December 2022

Rapoport’s rule proposes that a species’ range size increases with the increase in a gradient (such as latitude, altitude or water depth). However, altitudinal distributions and Rapoport’s rule have rarely been tested for Asian Lepi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
3,637 Views
25 Pages

Floristic Diversity and Distribution Pattern along an Altitudinal Gradient in the Central Andes: A Case Study of Cajatambo, Peru

  • Yakov Quinteros-Gómez,
  • Jehoshua Macedo-Bedoya,
  • Victor Santos-Linares,
  • Franco Angeles-Alvarez,
  • Doris Gómez-Ticerán,
  • José Campos-De la Cruz,
  • Julio Solis Sarmiento,
  • Abel Salinas-Inga and
  • Zinnia Valencia-Saavedra

27 November 2024

Introduction: This study focuses on the central mountain region of the Peruvian Andes, particularly its western slopes, high-altitude areas, and inter-Andean valleys situated above 3000 m.a.s.l. Despite its ecological importance, the region remains u...

  • Article
  • Open Access
8 Citations
3,770 Views
18 Pages

Classification and Characterization of the Manoor Valley’s (Lesser Himalaya) Vegetation from the Subtropical-Temperate Ecotonal Forests to the Alpine Pastures along Ecological Variables

  • Inayat Ur Rahman,
  • Aftab Afzal,
  • Zafar Iqbal,
  • Mashail Nasser Alzain,
  • Al-Bandari Fahad Al-Arjani,
  • Abdulaziz A. Alqarawi,
  • Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah,
  • Niaz Ali,
  • Shazia Sakhi and
  • Eduardo Soares Calixto
  • + 4 authors

28 December 2021

Plant species are distributed in different types of habitats, forming different communities driven by different sets of environmental variables. Here, we assessed potential plant communities along an altitudinal gradient and their associations with d...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1,249 Views
12 Pages

Species Diversity and Distribution of Amphibians in Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve, China

  • Mingfu Li,
  • Mei Xiao,
  • Li Zhao,
  • Yiming Wu,
  • Long Jin,
  • Chengzhi Yan and
  • Wenbo Liao

27 May 2025

Mountain ecosystems offer valuable opportunities to study species distribution and diversity along altitudinal gradients, particularly for amphibians. This research examined amphibian species distribution, diversity, and conservation across an elevat...

  • Article
  • Open Access
566 Views
24 Pages

Climatic Drivers of Flowering Synchrony in ‘Hass’ Avocado Under Tropical Andean Conditions

  • Alexander Rebolledo,
  • Ronal Burbano,
  • Jairo Villamizar and
  • Diego Corrales

16 December 2025

Understanding how climatic variability shapes the reproductive behavior of perennial crops is essential for improving their adaptation to tropical mountain environments. This study examined the influence of altitudinal and thermal gradients on flower...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
3,807 Views
34 Pages

20 January 2022

A team of non-holonomic constant-speed under-actuated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with lower-limited turning radii travel in 3D. The space hosts an unknown and unpredictably varying scalar environmental field. A space direction is given; this dir...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
1,680 Views
24 Pages

Ecologo-Geographic Distribution Patterns of the Italian Locust Calliptamus italicus (Linnaeus) (Orthoptera: Acrididae) in the Easternmost Part of Its Range

  • Michael G. Sergeev,
  • Muratbek K. Childebaev,
  • Rong Ji,
  • Vladimir V. Molodtsov,
  • Natalya S. Baturina,
  • Irina A. Van’kova,
  • Marya N. Kim-Kashmenskaya,
  • Kristina V. Popova,
  • Vasily D. Zharkov and
  • Oxana V. Yefremova

14 February 2025

Grasshoppers (Acridoidea) are one of the most essential components of grassland ecosystems. They are mainly primary consumers and some of them, e.g., the Italian locust, may be very important pests. The main goal of this article is to discuss possibl...

  • Article
  • Open Access
12 Citations
3,290 Views
15 Pages

12 November 2020

Research Highlights: Age structure was used to infer fire regimes in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. Uneven-aged structures in stands dominated and co-dominated by pine and fir species, which are distributed according to an altitudinal gradi...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
3,594 Views
19 Pages

Diversity and Composition of Caddisflies (Insecta: Trichoptera) along an Elevation Gradient in Southeastern Mexico

  • María Razo-González,
  • Rodolfo Novelo-Gutiérrez,
  • Gabriela Castaño-Meneses and
  • Juan Márquez

13 January 2023

We analyzed the alpha and beta components of male Trichoptera diversity along an altitudinal gradient ranging from 136 to 2432 m a.s.l. by studying five assemblages of adult male caddisflies in five streams of the Sierra de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mex...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2,329 Views
19 Pages

What Hides in the Heights? The Case of the Iberian Endemism Bromus picoeuropeanus

  • Claudia González-Toral,
  • Herminio S. Nava,
  • José Antonio Fernández Prieto and
  • Eduardo Cires

1 April 2023

Bromus picoeuropeanus is a recently described species belonging to a complex genus of grasses. It inhabits stony soils at heights ranging from 1600 to 2200 m in Picos de Europa (Cantabrian Mountains, northern Spain). This species is morphologically v...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
2,311 Views
14 Pages

Rhizosphere Effects along an Altitudinal Gradient of the Changbai Mountain, China

  • Changfu Huo,
  • Jiayu Lu,
  • Liming Yin,
  • Peng Wang and
  • Weixin Cheng

14 July 2022

Rhizosphere effects (REs) play important roles in regulating carbon (C) and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. However, little is known about the REs of mature trees in the field, especially at the ecosystem scale. This study aimed to explor...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
6,706 Views
12 Pages

Variation and Genetic Structure in Platanus mexicana (Platanaceae) along Riparian Altitudinal Gradient

  • Dulce M. Galván-Hernández,
  • J. Armando Lozada-García,
  • Norma Flores-Estévez,
  • Jorge Galindo-González and
  • S. Mario Vázquez-Torres

19 January 2015

Platanus mexicana is a dominant arboreal species of riparian ecosystems. These ecosystems are associated with altitudinal gradients that can generate genetic differences in the species, especially in the extremes of the distribution. However, studie...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
3,048 Views
25 Pages

Using UAV RGB Images for Assessing Tree Species Diversity in Elevation Gradient of Zao Mountains

  • Thi Cam Nhung Tran,
  • Maximo Larry Lopez Caceres,
  • Sergi Garcia i Riera,
  • Marco Conciatori,
  • Yoshiki Kuwabara,
  • Ching-Ying Tsou and
  • Yago Diez

15 October 2024

Vegetation biodiversity in mountainous regions is controlled by altitudinal gradients and their corresponding microclimate. Higher temperatures, shorter snow cover periods, and high variability in the precipitation regime might lead to changes in veg...

  • Review
  • Open Access
5 Citations
7,795 Views
81 Pages

2 April 2023

The diversity and distribution of the amphibians in Rwanda was critically reviewed to provide a reliable species inventory for informed conservation management. The checklist of the amphibian species of Rwanda is based on results of our own fieldwork...

  • Feature Paper
  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
1,927 Views
10 Pages

Zoonotic Tick-Borne Pathogens in Ticks from Vegetation and Alpine Ibex (Capra ibex) in the Maritime Alps, Italy

  • Arianna Menzano,
  • Paolo Tizzani,
  • Marisa Diana Farber,
  • Aitor Garcia-Vozmediano,
  • Laura Martinelli,
  • Luca Rossi and
  • Laura Tomassone

2 August 2024

In the Maritime Alps (northwestern Italy), we collected ticks from vegetation and Alpine ibex (Capra ibex). Ixodes ricinus was the most abundant species in the study area, questing up to 1824 m a.s.l. and infesting 28 out of 72 ibexes. Haemaphysalis ...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
3,370 Views
17 Pages

1 April 2023

Climate warming is expected to drive an upward altitudinal shift of species distributions in mountain areas. In this study, we consider how environmental variables constrain the distribution of freshwater mollusks across elevations based on an extens...

  • Article
  • Open Access
604 Views
24 Pages

The Updated Assessment of the Liverwort Flora of Laos, the Least-Studied Higher Plants Group in Indochina

  • Vadim A. Bakalin,
  • Seung Se Choi,
  • In Chun Hwang,
  • Myung-Ok Moon and
  • Ksenia G. Klimova

16 December 2025

The previously published liverwort checklist of Laos, one of the least-studied countries in Asia, was titled “Listing the Unknown”, based on the fact that only 66 species are known for such a landscape-diverse country. Our collection reve...

  • Article
  • Open Access
760 Views
20 Pages

Stoichiometric Responses of Soil Microbes and Enzymes to Altitudinal Gradients in Alpine Meadows

  • Yongqian Li,
  • Jun Wu,
  • Wenjun Ma,
  • Zhengqian Zhou,
  • Hongming Zhang,
  • Liqun Cai and
  • Dong Lin

Soil microbial nutrient limitation is of great significance for the maintenance of soil fertility, the sustainability of plant growth, and the stability of the alpine meadow ecosystems, which are particularly sensitive to global climate change. This...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
3,256 Views
16 Pages

Niche Variation in Endemic Lilium pomponium on a Wide Altitudinal Gradient in the Maritime Alps

  • Ninon Fontaine,
  • Perrine Gauthier,
  • Gabriele Casazza and
  • John D. Thompson

21 March 2022

The relationship between altitudinal and ecological gradients has long been a dominant theme in plant ecology; moreover, how species respond to climate change has renewed this interest. Mediterranean mountains are often hotspots of endemism, and some...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
3,483 Views
22 Pages

Functional Niche Partitioning Occurs over Body Size but Not Nutrient Reserves nor Melanism in a Polar Carabid Beetle along an Altitudinal Gradient

  • Diane Espel,
  • Camille Coux,
  • Luis R. Pertierra,
  • Pauline Eymar-Dauphin,
  • Jonas J. Lembrechts and
  • David Renault

25 January 2023

Phenotypic plasticity can favor the emergence of different morphotypes specialized in specific ranges of environmental conditions. The existence of intraspecific partitioning confers resilience at the species scale and can ultimately determine specie...

  • Article
  • Open Access
634 Views
15 Pages

UV-B Resistance in Artemia: A Comparative Analysis Across Altitudinal Gradients, Development Stages, and Reproductive Modes

  • Jiawei Xu,
  • Cheng Ma,
  • Bingheng Chen,
  • Yunhao Guo,
  • Malik Qammar,
  • Yingguo Gan,
  • Xiaoqi Yu and
  • Zhichao Wang

10 December 2025

The Artemia exhibit broad environmental adaptability and distinct reproductive modes, making them ideal for studying stress tolerance. Solar UV-B radiation poses a threat to aquatic organisms; however, for Artemia—a key aquatic organism charact...

  • Article
  • Open Access
46 Citations
5,809 Views
18 Pages

Influence of Aspect and Elevational Gradient on Vegetation Pattern, Tree Characteristics and Ecosystem Carbon Density in Northwestern Himalayas

  • D. R. Bhardwaj,
  • Habibullah Tahiry,
  • Prashant Sharma,
  • Nazir A. Pala,
  • Dhirender Kumar,
  • Amit Kumar and
  • Bharti

20 October 2021

Himalayan forest has been threatened by rapid anthropogenic activities, resulting in the loss of forest diversity and climate change. The present study was carried out on four aspects (northern, southern, western and eastern), at three different alti...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
3,623 Views
12 Pages

Altitudinal Shift of Tetrao urogallus in an Alpine Natura 2000 Site: Implications for Habitat Restoration

  • Tommaso Sitzia,
  • Thomas Campagnaro,
  • Matteo Dainese,
  • Francesco Dallabrida,
  • Silvano Mario Mattedi and
  • Alessia Portaccio

19 March 2019

Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus L.), a territorial galliform species, is known to prefer mature conifer stands with canopy gaps and a vigorous understory of ericaceous species. Capercaillie is a useful umbrella species that has recently shown declinin...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
993 Views
13 Pages

Exploring the Impact of Altitude on Bacterial Communities in Informally Produced Artisanal Colonial Cheeses: Insights from 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing

  • Wemerson de Castro Oliveira,
  • Anderson Santos de Freitas,
  • Jeferson Aloísio Ströher,
  • Neila Silvia Pereira dos Santos Richards,
  • Maria Beatriz Prior Pinto Oliveira and
  • Magnolia Martins Erhardt

Artisanal cheese microbiota plays a key role in defining its sensory properties, safety, and overall quality. Environmental factors, including altitude, influence microbial communities by altering temperature, pressure, and radiation levels, yet the...

  • Article
  • Open Access
4 Citations
3,623 Views
26 Pages

Factors Influencing Orchid Species Richness in the Central Balkans: The Importance of Belowground Organ Types

  • Vladan Djordjević,
  • Dmitar Lakušić,
  • Ivan Novković,
  • Vladimir Stevanović and
  • Spyros Tsiftsis

3 February 2025

The Balkan Peninsula is considered one of the most important centres of orchid diversity in Europe. However, the patterns of orchid species richness in the Central Balkans have not been sufficiently studied so far. The aim of this study was, therefor...

  • Article
  • Open Access
1 Citations
1,466 Views
14 Pages

Diversity Patterns of Bacteria in the Root Zone of Davidia involucrata Along an Altitudinal Gradient

  • Yang Jin,
  • Xin Li,
  • Yu Hu,
  • Junzhong Huang,
  • Yan Chen,
  • Yongping Kou,
  • Xinlei Li,
  • Ming Dong,
  • Dongzhou Deng and
  • Yan Li

31 October 2024

Davidia involucrata has an ancient origin, representing a remnant from the paleotropical flora that thrived during the Tertiary period. Altitudinal gradient acts as a natural testing ground for studying climate change, and research on the distributio...

  • Communication
  • Open Access
12 Citations
3,784 Views
17 Pages

First Record of Hepatozoon spp. in Alpine Wild Rodents: Implications and Perspectives for Transmission Dynamics across the Food Web

  • Giulia Ferrari,
  • Matteo Girardi,
  • Francesca Cagnacci,
  • Olivier Devineau and
  • Valentina Tagliapietra

Among the Apicomplexa parasites, Hepatozoon spp. have been mainly studied in domestic animals and peri-urban areas. The epidemiology of Hepatozoon spp. is poorly investigated in natural systems and wild hosts because of their scarce veterinary and ec...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
1,589 Views
14 Pages

26 November 2024

Soil microbial communities are essential drivers of ecosystem functions, yet the factors shaping their structure and function, particularly at different altitudes and between invasive and native plants, remain insufficiently understood. Using high-th...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
3,750 Views
13 Pages

Divergent Last Century Tree Growth along An Altitudinal Gradient in A Pinus sylvestris L. Dry-edge Population

  • Laura Fernández-Pérez,
  • Miguel A. Zavala,
  • Pedro Villar -Salvador and
  • Jaime Madrigal-González

26 June 2019

Research Highlights: This research highlights the importance of environmental gradients in shaping tree growth responses to global change drivers and the difficulty of attributing impacts to a single directional driver. Background and Objectives: Tem...

  • Article
  • Open Access
25 Citations
4,966 Views
21 Pages

14 January 2019

Monitoring plant phenology is one of the means of detecting the response of vegetation to changing environmental conditions. One approach for the study of vegetation phenology from local to global scales is to apply satellite-based indices. We invest...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
1,433 Views
25 Pages

4 June 2025

Against the background of global warming, forests across environmental gradients show distinct responses to climate change, necessitating research on tree growth patterns under specific conditions. Climate and competition are critical factors affecti...

  • Article
  • Open Access
2 Citations
2,345 Views
14 Pages

18 January 2023

This study presents isotopic compositions and their vertical profile of meteoric and surface water samples collected in the Southern Himalaya since 2015, with elevations extending all the way up to Mt. Everest’s summit. The data covering a wide...

  • Article
  • Open Access
3 Citations
1,559 Views
11 Pages

Variations in Soil Seed Banks in Sedge Peatlands across an Altitude Gradient

  • Qi Chen,
  • Guodong Wang,
  • Ming Wang,
  • Meiling Zhao,
  • Yusong Yuan,
  • Jingci Meng,
  • Yantong Zhao,
  • Nanlin Hu,
  • Tao Zhang and
  • Bo Liu

12 September 2024

As a key component of the ecosystem, soil seed banks (SSBs) play a vital role in the evolution and renewal of plant communities. Although the pattern and mechanisms of influence of SSBs along the altitudinal gradient have been reported, most studies...

  • Article
  • Open Access
478 Views
14 Pages

Seasonal Elevational Migration Shapes Temperate Bird Community in the Gyirong Valley, Central Himalayas

  • Huaiming Jin,
  • Shuqing Zhao,
  • Zhifeng Ding,
  • Yongbing Yang,
  • Gang Song,
  • Shuaishuai Huang,
  • Ruojin Liu,
  • Shengling Zhou,
  • Le Yang and
  • Yonghong Zhou

13 January 2026

Understanding the mechanisms underlying seasonal community dynamics is important for predicting biodiversity responses to environmental fluctuations, enhancing ecological forecasting, and informing conservation strategies. In this study, we use stand...

  • Article
  • Open Access
12 Citations
3,152 Views
36 Pages

Liverwort and Hornwort Flora of Hoàng Liên National Park and the Adjacent Areas (North Vietnam, Indochina)

  • Vadim A. Bakalin,
  • Ksenia G. Klimova,
  • Van Sinh Nguyen,
  • Hung Manh Nguyen,
  • Daniil A. Bakalin and
  • Seung Se Choi

29 April 2023

The study of the flora located in the central part of the Hoàng Liên Sơn Range in the northern region of Indochina has revealed 279 species of liverwort and hornwort, 26 of which are newly reported for the flora of Vietnam. The uniq...

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