A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä
Relict high-Andean ecosystems challenge our concepts of naturalness and human impact
Tekijät: Sylvester Stephen P, Heitkamp Felix, Sylvester Mitsy DPV, Jungkunst Hermann F, Sipman Harrie JM, Toivonen Johanna M, Inca Carlos A Gonzales, Ospina Juan C, Kessler Michael
Kustantaja: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
Julkaisuvuosi: 2017
Journal: Scientific Reports
Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimi: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Lehden akronyymi: SCI REP-UK
Artikkelin numero: ARTN 3334
Vuosikerta: 7
Sivujen määrä: 13
ISSN: 2045-2322
eISSN: 2045-2322
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03500-7
Verkko-osoite: http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-03500-7
Rinnakkaistallenteen osoite: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/23071754
What would current ecosystems be like without the impact of mankind? This question, which is critical for ecosystem management, has long remained unanswered due to a lack of present-day data from truly undisturbed ecosystems. Using mountaineering techniques, we accessed pristine relict ecosystems in the Peruvian Andes to provide this baseline data and compared it with the surrounding accessible and disturbed landscape. We show that natural ecosystems and human impact in the high Andes are radically different from preconceived ideas. Vegetation of these 'lost worlds' was dominated by plant species previously unknown to science that have become extinct in nearby human-affected ecosystems. Furthermore, natural vegetation had greater plant biomass with potentially as much as ten times more forest, but lower plant diversity. Contrary to our expectations, soils showed relatively little degradation when compared within a vegetation type, but differed mainly between forest and grassland ecosystems. At the landscape level, a presumed large-scale forest reduction resulted in a nowadays more acidic soilscape with higher carbon storage, partly ameliorating carbon loss through deforestation. Human impact in the high Andes, thus, had mixed effects on biodiversity, while soils and carbon stocks would have been mainly indirectly affected through a suggested large-scale vegetation change.
Ladattava julkaisu This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |  |
