While researching moss, I came across information about mountain zones, which tells me that moss is a plant that can live beyond the tree line in subalpine and alpine zones. Mountain zones tend to be harsh environments with low temperatures and air pressure, dry conditions, and strong ultraviolet rays, and moss supports the ecosystem by storing precious water. Moss is amazing. Perhaps thanks to moss, mountain ecosystems excel in biodiversity despite their harsh environment.
https://www.moss-ecology.jp/cont5/main.html
Mountainous terrain often has steep slopes, and even if the distance between areas is close, the environment often differs depending on the area, such as slopes where it rains and slopes where it doesn’t rain. Also, because the environment changes greatly depending on the altitude, such as temperature, humidity, and strong winds, there are multiple different environments within a single mountain, and each environment has its own ecosystem that is adapted to it. Mountains are amazing, aren’t they?
There is a theory that genetic differentiation, known as speciation, occurs between groups of plants and insects due to differences in the environment, such as altitude. Diversity is created when one species splits into multiple species. However, the alpine zone is harsh, so plants grow quickly and become small in order to leave seeds. This may also help protect against strong winds. Alpine plants seem to converge into about five different types, even though they are different species. Apparently, some of these plants are heat-generating.
https://umdb.um.u-tokyo.ac.jp/DKankoub/Publish_db/1997Expedition/05/050700.html
In addition to creating biodiversity, mountainous topography also seems to play a role in bringing rain. It’s amazing how rain that falls in the mountains is connected to a grand water cycle, pouring down into forests, becoming groundwater or flowing downstream as rivers, etc. Air currents rise up the mountain slopes, and the adiabatic expansion caused by the low pressure at high altitudes causes a sudden drop in temperature, forming clouds and causing rain. The slope seems to be important.
https://yamachizu.jp/article/10154
And while the circulation of nutrients in high mountains is often caused by gravity, it seems that there is also circulation against gravity caused by the wind. Apparently, the wind carries insects from the foot of the mountain to the alpine zone, where they become food for birds that live in the mountains. So that’s the kind of circulation that exists. Wind is amazing. And the mountains that create the wind are amazing.
https://www.cn.chiba-u.jp/news/250227_1
Mountains are often covered with forests, but this time we looked at mountains that are higher than the tree line. Mountains are amazing because they create biodiversity, produce rain and wind, and are key to circulation. The Earth is amazing because it creates so many mountains.
