The vairone Leuciscus souffia is a cyprinid fish that inhabits river systems in and around the Alps. The complete mitochondrial DNA control region (945 bp) was sequenced in 295 vairone from 22 populations in Central Europe. A total of 51 haplotypes were identified with a maximum pairwise distance between haplotypes of 5.6%. Phylogenetic analyses revealed two major clades in L. souffia, an 'Ital...

Climate change effects on snow cover and thermic regime in alpine tundra might lead to a longer growing season, but could also increase risks to plants from spring frost events. Alpine snowbeds, i.e. alpine tundra from late snowmelt sites, might be particularly susceptible to such climatic changes. Snowbed communities were grown in large monoliths for two consecutive years, under different mani...

We assessed if the relative importance of biotic and abiotic factors for plant community composition differs along environmental gradients and between functional groups, and asked which implications this may have in a warmer and wetter future. The study location is a unique grid of sites spanning regional-scale temperature and precipitation gradients in boreal and alpine grasslands in southern ...

Worldwide, many plant species are experiencing an earlier onset of spring phenophases due to climate warming. Rapid recent temperature increases on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) have triggered changes in the spring phenology of the local vegetation. However, remote sensing studies of the land surface phenology have reached conflicting interpretations about green-up patterns observed on the TP since ...

INTRODUCTION Head injuries represent a concern in skiing and snowboarding, with traumatic brain injuries being the most common cause of death. AIM To describe the mechanisms of head and face injuries among World Cup alpine and freestyle skiers and snowboarders. METHODS We performed a qualitative analysis of videos obtained of head and face injuries reported through the International Ski Fed...

Ophiocordyceps sinensis, one of the most important income sources of rural Tibetan families, is an entomopathogenic fungus that parasitizes the ghost moth Thitarodes larvae, which live in alpine meadows on the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayas. The annual yield of O. sinensis has gradually declined in recent years. However, there is no effective method to sustain or increase the yield of O. ...

Diels (1897) first put forward a climatic hypothesis for the origin of divaricating plants. This hypothesis has been elaborated by subsequent authors and is further extended herein. In contrast, Greenwood and Atkinson (1977) proposed that the divaricating shrub form evolved as a protection against moa-browsing. These two hypotheses are critically compared and it is concluded that the climatic h...

Immediately before human settlement, dense tall podocarp-angiosperm forest dominated the moist Southland and southern coastal Otago districts. Open, discontinuous podocarp-angiosperm forest bordered the central Otago dry interior, extending along the north Otago coast. Grassland was mostly patchy within these woody ecosystems, occurring on limited areas of droughty or low-nutrient soils and wet...

Nepal is rich in both natural and cultural diversity. The great range of altitude from the lowland plains of the terai to the high peaks of the Himalaya has produced an unparalleled diversity of habitats from tropical forests in the south to alpine grasslands in the north, supporting a tremendous variety of flora and fauna. This includes many species that are globally threatened such as the Tig...

Species of Valerianaceae are a common component of the alpine flora throughout the Northern Hemisphere as well as the Andes of South America. Sequence data from three chloroplast markers (psbA-trnH intron, trnK-matK intron, and the trnL-F region) along with the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA were used to infer relationships within Valerianaceae. Both genomes, ...