Lack of varied seasons and temperatures in tropical mountains have led to species that are highly adapted to their narrow niches, creating the right conditions for new species to arise in these areas, according to a new study published Nov. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Lack of varied seasons and temperatures in tropical mountains have led to species that are highly adapted to their narrow niches, creating the right conditions for new species to arise in these areas, according to a new study published Nov. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Still, the same traits that make tropical mountains among the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth also make the species that live there more vulnerable to rapid climate changes, the study finds.
The research compares rates that new species evolve in three types of aquatic stream insects – mayflies (Ephemeroptera), stoneflies (Plecoptera) and caddisflies (Trichoptera) – in temperate and tropical mountain areas. The findings have implications for similar patterns in other tropical mountain species.
An interdisciplinary team of physiologists, geneticists and genomics specialists, population biologists and taxonomists from four universities – including Cornell – gathered samples and data from mountain streams in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and in the Ecuadorian Andes over a two-year period.
Read more at Cornell University
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