Temperature thresholds induce abrupt shifts in biodiversity and ecosystem services in montane ecosystems worldwide.

ABSTRACT: Montane ecosystems are crucial for maintaining global biodiversity and function that sustain life on our planet. Yet, these ecosystems are highly vulnerable to changing temperatures and may undergo critical transitions under ongoing climate change. What we do not know is to what extent montane biodiversity and ecosystem services will respond to local temperature variations in a gradual versus abrupt manner across global environments. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a global synthesis, including 4,462 observations from 290 elevation gradients, to investigate how biodiversity (spanning animals and plants) and ecosystem services (including plant production, soil carbon, and fertility) respond to local temperature variations along elevation gradients. We found that nearly one-third of

SUBMITTER: Zeng XM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12037028 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature