Journal
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume 9, Issue 15, Pages 8911-8918Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.5327
Keywords
biodiversity lost; cold hotspots; equator; ex situ conservation; ice; psychrophiles
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Funding
- Narodowe Centrum Nauki [2013/11/N/NZ8/00597]
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Glaciation accompanied our human ancestors in Africa throughout the Pleistocene. Regrettably, equatorial glaciers and snow are disappearing rapidly, and we are likely the last generation who will get to know these peculiar places. Despite the permanently harsh conditions of glacier/snow habitats, they support a remarkable diversity of life ranging from bacteria to animals. Numerous papers have been devoted to microbial communities and unique animals on polar glaciers and high mountains, but only two reports relate to glacial biodiversity in equatorial regions, which are destined to melt completely within the next few decades. Equatorial glaciers constitute cold islands in tropics, and discovering their diversity might shed light on the biogeography, dispersal, and history of psychrophiles. Thus, an opportunity to protect biota of equatorial glaciers hinges on ex situ conservation. It is timely and crucial that we should investigate the glacial biodiversity of the few remaining equatorial glaciers.
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