Cargando…
Disappearing Kilimanjaro snow—Are we the last generation to explore equatorial glacier biodiversity?
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, th...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2019
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6686285/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31410289 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5327 |
_version_ | 1783442530399944704 |
---|---|
author | Zawierucha, Krzysztof Shain, Daniel H. |
author_facet | Zawierucha, Krzysztof Shain, Daniel H. |
author_sort | Zawierucha, Krzysztof |
collection | PubMed |
description | 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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6686285 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-66862852019-08-13 Disappearing Kilimanjaro snow—Are we the last generation to explore equatorial glacier biodiversity? Zawierucha, Krzysztof Shain, Daniel H. Ecol Evol Hypotheses 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. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019-07-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6686285/ /pubmed/31410289 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5327 Text en © 2019 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Hypotheses Zawierucha, Krzysztof Shain, Daniel H. Disappearing Kilimanjaro snow—Are we the last generation to explore equatorial glacier biodiversity? |
title | Disappearing Kilimanjaro snow—Are we the last generation to explore equatorial glacier biodiversity? |
title_full | Disappearing Kilimanjaro snow—Are we the last generation to explore equatorial glacier biodiversity? |
title_fullStr | Disappearing Kilimanjaro snow—Are we the last generation to explore equatorial glacier biodiversity? |
title_full_unstemmed | Disappearing Kilimanjaro snow—Are we the last generation to explore equatorial glacier biodiversity? |
title_short | Disappearing Kilimanjaro snow—Are we the last generation to explore equatorial glacier biodiversity? |
title_sort | disappearing kilimanjaro snow—are we the last generation to explore equatorial glacier biodiversity? |
topic | Hypotheses |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6686285/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31410289 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5327 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT zawieruchakrzysztof disappearingkilimanjarosnowarewethelastgenerationtoexploreequatorialglacierbiodiversity AT shaindanielh disappearingkilimanjarosnowarewethelastgenerationtoexploreequatorialglacierbiodiversity |