The Andes Mountains of South America are the most species-rich biodiversity hotspot for plant and vertebrate species in the world.
The Andes Mountains of South America are the most species-rich biodiversity hotspot for plant and vertebrate species in the world. But the forest that climbs up this mountain range provides another important service to humanity.
Andean forests are helping to protect the planet by acting as a carbon sink, absorbing carbon dioxide and keeping some of this climate-altering gas out of circulation, according to new research published in Nature Communications.
The study — which draws upon two decades of data from 119 forest-monitoring plots in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina — was produced by an international team of scientists including researchers supported by the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis. The lead author was Alvaro Duque from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellín.
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William Farfan-Rios, a native of Cusco, Peru, and a postdoctoral research fellow of the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis, knows first-hand how difficult it is to conduct field research in the Andes. Here, Farfan-Rios collecting a sample of the flowering plant Clusia alata in a forest plot in Manu National Park, Peru. (Photo Credit: Miles Silman)
