Mountains
Mountains are prominent landforms characterized by steep slopes and significant elevation differences, found on every continent. They arise primarily from tectonic plate collisions and can also feature volcanic formations. These elevated terrains support diverse climates and vegetation zones, with distinct ecosystems ranging from tropical forests to glacial environments. Mountains are vital habitats that harbor a rich array of biodiversity, including many species that are endemic to these regions due to their unique ecological niches. For instance, areas like Rocky Mountain National Park are home to hundreds of plant and animal species, showcasing the complexity of mountain ecosystems. However, mountains face numerous threats from human activities, including recreational erosion, deforestation, and the impacts of climate change, such as glacial melt and altered water systems. These challenges pose significant risks to the delicate balance of mountain habitats and their biodiversity, making conservation efforts crucial. Understanding the ecological significance of mountains can foster appreciation and promote efforts to protect these vital landscapes.
Mountains
Mountains are the most conspicuous landforms on Earth. They are found on every continent and have been defined simply as elevated landforms of high local relief, with much of the surface in steep slopes, displaying distinct variations in climate and vegetation zones from the base to the summit. The Earth’s mountain ranges have been created by the collision of tectonic plates. Associated with many of these mountain ranges are volcanoes. If the solidified magma of a volcano builds up, it can become a mountain; likewise, if the collision involves two oceanic plates, a string of volcanic mountains, called an island arc, can form on the ocean floor.
Mountain Habitat
Mountains are globally significant reservoirs of biodiversity. They contain rich assemblages of species and ecosystems. Because of the rapid changes in altitude and temperature along a mountain slope, multiple ecological zones are stacked upon one another, sometimes ranging from dense tropical jungles to glacial ice within a few kilometers. Many plant and animal species are found only on mountains, having evolved over centuries of isolation to inhabit these specialized environments. Mountains can also function as biological corridors, connecting isolated habitats or protected areas and allowing species to migrate between them. These extraordinary ecological conditions, coupled with many bioclimatic zones, have resulted in an extremely high number of ecological niches available for habituation in mountain ecosystems.
Mountain Fauna
Because of the great diversity in habitats within mountainous regions, with each region showing a different combination of environmental factors, total mountain fauna is relatively rich and the variety of small communities very great, in spite of the general severity of the mountain environment as a whole. Likewise, this diversity has resulted in a wide range of endemic species that have evolved over centuries of isolation from other genetic material. Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado typifies this diversity as a home to approximately 900 species of plants, 280 species of birds, and 60 species of mammals. Some are easily seen, and others are elusive, but all are part of the ecosystem in the park. On a global scale, mountain fauna diversity includes many species of ungulates, including elk, bighorn sheep, moose, and deer. Also included in mountain communities are many species of rodents. Rodent species may include beavers, marmots, squirrels, and chipmunks. Other mammalian animal life includes bears, canids, including coyotes and wolves, and many species of felids, such as mountain lions and bobcats. Mountain avian fauna includes many families of hummingbirds, bluebirds, hawks, falcons, eagles, and many more.
Threats to Mountains
Mountains are threatened in a variety of ways. There are constant threats from human activities, such as camping, hiking, and other recreational activities. Hikers create tracks in the soil that form erosion gullies. Likewise, hikers may trample on vegetation that has taken many years to grow. Mountains that were once the domain of only experienced mountaineers have become easily climbed for the right amount of money. Many exhibitions have focused on cleaning up debris and trash from Mount Everest—once one of the most inaccessible places on the planet. Commercial harvesting of trees in the lower forest zones of mountains is having an increasingly detrimental effect on biodiversity. Many countries have replanted indigenous trees with fast-growing coniferous trees in an ill-fated effort to supply a growing human population with wood products. These hybrid forests are not nearly as beautiful as the native forests, but more to the point, they do not offer an environment conducive to the ecosystem that the native species support. This problem creates a loss of wildlife, which becomes even more rare in these forests because of the decline of native vegetation. Climate change is another threat to mountain ecosystems. Snowlines are receding, and eventually, the continued melting of glaciers and polar ice caps could lead to the drying of major river systems which feed from them. Without question, human settlement and activities constitute the biggest threat to the mountain ecosystem.
Principal Terms
Asthenosphere: the region below the lithosphere where rock is less rigid than that above and below it
Bioclimatic Zone: a zone of transition between different yet adjacent ecological systems
Endemism: the occurrence of species only within narrow environmental ranges
Local Relief: the elevation difference between the lowest and highest points in an area
Succession: directional change in communities of vegetation or animals
Tectonic Plate: tectonic plate theory suggests that the Earth’s surface is composed of a number of oceanic and continental plates which have the ability to move slowly across the Earth’s asthenosphere
Bibliography
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“Flora & Fauna Rocky Mountain.” Oh, Ranger!, 2013, www.ohranger.com/flora-fauna. Accessed 2 July 2023.
Messerli, B., and J. D. Ives. Mountains of the World: A Global Priority. New York: Parthenon, 1997.
Price, L. Mountains and Man. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.
"Rocky Mountain." National Park Service, www.nps.gov/romo/learn/nature/index.htm. Accessed 12 July 2024.
Sauvain, P. Geography Detective: Mountains. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 1996. .
Stronach, N. Mountains. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1995.
“Trash and Overcrowding at the Top of the World.” National Geographic Society, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/trash-and-overcrowding-top-world. Accessed 2 July 2023.