IN BRIEF

摘要

They're living the high life. Way above the treeline on the world's highest mountains, tiny ecosystems thrive under their own private life-support domes. A dome shape helps hundreds of plant species survive extreme wind and temperature. Working in the Altai mountains of Siberia, between 1750 and 4000 metres above sea level, Igor Volkov and Irina Volkova from Tomsk State University found that temperatures inside these "cushion plants" remained at a benign 5 to 7℃, despite outside temperatures fluctuating from below freezing to 15 ℃ in a day (International Journal of Environmental Studies, doi.org/54r;. This microclimate favours microbial activity which causes dead leaves to decay, turning them into compost that encourages further plant growth. The researchers found, for example, that soil under the two-flower cinquefoil cushions contained 15 times as much organic material as the rocky areas nearthem.