Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 112, Issue 41, Pages 12741-12745Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1509938112
Keywords
Andes; climate change; land use change; range shifts; tropical biodiversity
Categories
Funding
- EliteForsk Award
- Ingenior Svend G. Fiedler og Hustrus Grant
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Global climate change is driving species poleward and upward in high-latitude regions, but the extent to which the biodiverse tropics are similarly affected is poorly known due to a scarcity of historical records. In 1802, Alexander von Humboldt ascended the Chimborazo volcano in Ecuador. He recorded the distribution of plant species and vegetation zones along its slopes and in surrounding parts of the Andes. We revisited Chimborazo in 2012, precisely 210 y after Humboldt's expedition. We documented upward shifts in the distribution of vegetation zones as well as increases in maximum elevation limits of individual plant taxa of >500 m on average. These range shifts are consistent with increased temperatures and glacier retreat on Chimborazo since Humboldt's study. Our findings provide evidence that global warming is strongly reshaping tropical plant distributions, consistent with Humboldt's proposal that climate is the primary control on the altitudinal distribution of vegetation.
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