Alpine ecosystems are quite sensitive to global climatic changes. Drawing from two sets of remote sensing data (1986 and 2000) and field investigations, the ecological index method was used to document ecosystem changes in the Yangtze and Yellow River source regions of central Qinghai–Tibet. Although crucial to understanding alpine ecosystem responses to global climatic changes, and in assessin...

Worldwide, changing climates and land use practices are escalating woody-plants encroachment into grasslands, reducing biodiversity and altering ecosystem functions. The loss of alpine grasslands is a major conservation concern as they harbor many rare and endemic species. Alpine meadows in Northwest Yunnan, China, represent a global biodiversity hotspot with high species richness, beta diversi...

Recently, a dwarf bamboo species,Sasa kurilensis; Poaceae, has invaded into alpine snow-meadows in the wilderness area of the Taisetsu Mountains, northern Japan. This dwarf bamboo species has a wide distribution range from lowland to alpine sites of snowy regions. Because of the formation of dense evergreen culms and an extensive rhizome system, other plants are excluded following invasion by t...

Little is known about the movement of stoats in alpine grassland, where several species of native birds, reptiles and invertebrates are potentially at risk from predation. Radio-tracking, live trapping and tracking tunnel techniques were used to sample stoats in two adjacent habitats to determine whether the home range of stoats in beech forest valley floors extends into neighbouring alpine gra...

Introduction Conclusions References

Immunocompetence benefits animal fitness by combating pathogens, but also entails some costs. One of its main components is fever, which in ectotherms involves two main types of costs: energy expenditure and predation risk. Whenever those costs of fever outweigh its benefits, ectotherms are expected not to develop fever, or even to show hypothermia, reducing costs of thermoregulation and divert...

Predation by introduced stoats is now considered a major threat to the population viability of several New Zealand endemic bird species. Historically stoat research and management has focused on beech forests and little is known about the ecology of stoats in the alpine grasslands occurring above the natural altitudinal limit of beech forest. Several stoat control operations in beech forest val...

Solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR, 290-400 nm) is a crucial environmental factor in alpine lakes because of the natural increase of the UVR flux with elevation and the high water transparency of these ecosystems. The ecological importance of UVR, however, has only recently been recognized. This review, examines the general features of alpine lakes regarding UVR, summarizes what is known about th...

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