T6.4 Temperate alpine grasslands and shrublands

Biome: T6. Polar/alpine (cryogenic) biome

Contributors:
(texts)

Temperate alpine grasslands and shrublands occur above the treeline, on temperate and boreal mountains worldwide. Seasonal productivity is limited by cold and snow cover, often with strong winds. Mosses, liverworts, lichens, flowering plants and low shrubs generally form a continuous cover, except where strong winds and dry conditions limit vegetation to sparse lichens and dwarf shrubs. Most fauna is seasonally active during warmer summer months, with insects and vertebrates having adaptations to extreme cold, including hibernation. Many species have restricted distributions, with strong barriers to dispersal between mountains.

Key Features

Mountain systems above the physiological limits of trees, with sparse to continuous cover of herbaceous plants, cryptogams and dwarf shrubs that may be morphologically adaptated to extreme cold..

Overview of distribution

Ttemperate and boreal zones of the Americas, Europe, central Eurasia, west and north Asia,  Australia, and New Zealand.

Profile versions

• v1.0 (2020-01-20): DA Keith; F Essl
• v2.0 (2020-05-31): DA Keith; F Essl; KR Young; CH Körner
• v2.01 ():
• v2.1 (2022-04-06): DA Keith; F Essl; KR Young; CH Körner Full profile available at official site

Main references

Selected references for this functional group:

• Körner C (2004) Mountain biodiversity: its causes and function Ambio Special Report Number 13. The Royal Colloquium: Mountain Areas: A Global Resource, pp. 11-17. Springer, Berlin DOI:10.4324/9780429342585-1

• Körner C (2012) Alpine treelines Springer, Basel. ISBN 978-3-0348-0396-0 DOI:978-3-0348-0396-0

• Paulsen J, Körner C (2014) A climate-based model to predict potential treeline position around the globe Alpine Botany 124, 1-12 DOI:10.1007/s00035-014-0124-0

Diagrammatic assembly model

Diagrammatic assembly model of T6.4 Temperate alpine grasslands and shrublands. See general notes on diagrams. Open image full size.

Maps

Maps are indicative of global distribution patterns are not intended to represent fine-scale patterns. The maps show areas of the world containing major (coloured red) or minor occurrences (coloured yellow) of each ecosystem functional group. See general notes on maps.

There are 2 alternative versions of the indicative map for this functional group, please compare description and sources below.

T6.4.IM.orig_v1.0

Datasets

• Resolve-Ecoregions-2017

Map references

• Dinerstein E, Olson D, Joshi A, Vynne C, Burgess ND, Wikramanayake E, Hahn N, Palminteri S, Hedao P, Noss R, Hansen M, Locke H, Ellis EE, Jones B, Barber CV, Hayes R, Kormos C, Martin V, Crist E, Sechrest W, Price L, Baillie JEM, Weeden D, Suckling K, Davis C, Sizer N, Moore R, Thau D, Birch T, Potapov P, Turubanova S, Tyukavina A, de Souza N, Pintea L, Brito JC, Llewellyn Barnekow Lillesø JP, van Breugel P, Graudal L, Voge M, Al-Shammari KF, Saleem M (2017) An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience 67: 534–545. DOI:10.1093/biosci/bix014. Data-set available on-line

T6.4.web.orig_v1.0

Terrestrial ecoregions containing major or minor occurrences of this ecosystem functional group were identified by consulting available ecoregion descriptions (Dinerstein et al. 2017), global and regional reviews, national and regional ecosystem maps, locations of relevant examples, and proofed by expert reviewers. Consequently they are coarse-scale indicative representations of distribution, except where they occupy small ecoregions. Ecoregions were mapped at 30 arc second spatial resolution. Open image full size.

Datasets

• Resolve-Ecoregions-2017

Map references

• Dinerstein E, Olson D, Joshi A, Vynne C, Burgess ND, Wikramanayake E, Hahn N, Palminteri S, Hedao P, Noss R, Hansen M, Locke H, Ellis EE, Jones B, Barber CV, Hayes R, Kormos C, Martin V, Crist E, Sechrest W, Price L, Baillie JEM, Weeden D, Suckling K, Davis C, Sizer N, Moore R, Thau D, Birch T, Potapov P, Turubanova S, Tyukavina A, de Souza N, Pintea L, Brito JC, Llewellyn Barnekow Lillesø JP, van Breugel P, Graudal L, Voge M, Al-Shammari KF, Saleem M (2017) An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm, BioScience 67: 534–545. DOI:10.1093/biosci/bix014. Data-set available on-line

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