Alpine vegetation

Article By:

Hansen, Katherine J. Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana.

Last reviewed:October 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.757416

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• Alpine vegetation, published October 2019:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

Any of the plant growth forms characteristic of the upper reaches of mountain slopes. Alpine vegetation refers to the plants that grow in mountainous areas above the limit of subalpine trees and other subalpine vegetation. In such environments, trees undergo gradual changes. These changes, although subtle at first, may become dramatic beyond the dense forest as the zone of transition leads into the nonforested zone of the alpine tundra. In varying degrees, depending on the particular mountain setting, the forest is transformed from a closed-canopy forest to one of deformed and stunted trees interspersed with alpine tundra species. This zone of transition is referred to as the forest-alpine tundra ecotone (a transition zone or geographic boundary between two different groups of plant or animal distributions). The trees within the ecotone are stunted and often shrublike, and they do not have the symmetrical shape of most trees within the forest interior. The classic image is one of twisted, stunted, and struggling individual trees clinging to a windswept ridge (Fig. 1). See also: Altitudinal vegetation zone; Ecological community; Ecology; Ecotone; Forest; Life forms of plants; Mountain; Tree; Tundra

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