Abstract:Botanists and plant morphologists have long been fascinated by how certain species can exhibit such reduced morphologies that even their identification to genus-or family-level becomes difficult. Such was the case with Lysipomia mitsyae sp. nov., an exceptionally small plant discovered in the Peruvian Andes which bears lobelioid characteristics but differs in size by an order of magnitude from the current smallest members known from the entire Campanulaceae and lacks diagnostic characters allowing it to be rel… Show more
“…3f,g) of introduced alien plant species, which were nearly absent in inaccessible sites. Indicator species analyses found accessible forest to harbour a high proportion of these aliens (Table S3) while a few undescribed species 31, 32 were also found to be significant indicator species of accessible grassland (Tables S3 and S4). Widespread generalist species (Figs 3d and S2d and Table S4), most of which had adaptations to burning and grazing (Figs 3h and S3 and Table S6), dominated accessible sites.Figure 3Plant diversity, composition and traits in inaccessible and accessible forest and grassland.…”
What would current ecosystems be like without the impact of mankind? This question, which is critical for ecosystem management, has long remained unanswered due to a lack of present-day data from truly undisturbed ecosystems. Using mountaineering techniques, we accessed pristine relict ecosystems in the Peruvian Andes to provide this baseline data and compared it with the surrounding accessible and disturbed landscape. We show that natural ecosystems and human impact in the high Andes are radically different from preconceived ideas. Vegetation of these ‘lost worlds’ was dominated by plant species previously unknown to science that have become extinct in nearby human-affected ecosystems. Furthermore, natural vegetation had greater plant biomass with potentially as much as ten times more forest, but lower plant diversity. Contrary to our expectations, soils showed relatively little degradation when compared within a vegetation type, but differed mainly between forest and grassland ecosystems. At the landscape level, a presumed large-scale forest reduction resulted in a nowadays more acidic soilscape with higher carbon storage, partly ameliorating carbon loss through deforestation. Human impact in the high Andes, thus, had mixed effects on biodiversity, while soils and carbon stocks would have been mainly indirectly affected through a suggested large-scale vegetation change.
“…3f,g) of introduced alien plant species, which were nearly absent in inaccessible sites. Indicator species analyses found accessible forest to harbour a high proportion of these aliens (Table S3) while a few undescribed species 31, 32 were also found to be significant indicator species of accessible grassland (Tables S3 and S4). Widespread generalist species (Figs 3d and S2d and Table S4), most of which had adaptations to burning and grazing (Figs 3h and S3 and Table S6), dominated accessible sites.Figure 3Plant diversity, composition and traits in inaccessible and accessible forest and grassland.…”
What would current ecosystems be like without the impact of mankind? This question, which is critical for ecosystem management, has long remained unanswered due to a lack of present-day data from truly undisturbed ecosystems. Using mountaineering techniques, we accessed pristine relict ecosystems in the Peruvian Andes to provide this baseline data and compared it with the surrounding accessible and disturbed landscape. We show that natural ecosystems and human impact in the high Andes are radically different from preconceived ideas. Vegetation of these ‘lost worlds’ was dominated by plant species previously unknown to science that have become extinct in nearby human-affected ecosystems. Furthermore, natural vegetation had greater plant biomass with potentially as much as ten times more forest, but lower plant diversity. Contrary to our expectations, soils showed relatively little degradation when compared within a vegetation type, but differed mainly between forest and grassland ecosystems. At the landscape level, a presumed large-scale forest reduction resulted in a nowadays more acidic soilscape with higher carbon storage, partly ameliorating carbon loss through deforestation. Human impact in the high Andes, thus, had mixed effects on biodiversity, while soils and carbon stocks would have been mainly indirectly affected through a suggested large-scale vegetation change.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
