Summary/Abstract
This study examines how local temperature differences affect montane biodiversity and ecosystem services, focusing on whether those effects happen gradually or abruptly. The authors “conducted a global synthesis, including 4,462 observations from 290 elevation gradients, to investigate how biodiversity (spanning animals and plants) and ecosystem services (including plant production, soil carbon, and fertility) respond to local temperature variations along elevation gradients.”
The study found that “nearly one-third of these gradients exhibited abrupt shifts in multiple biodiversity and ecosystem services in response to local variations in temperature along elevation gradients,” which highlights the sensitivity of montane ecosystems to climate change.