(TibetanReview.net, Feb28’25) – The Tibetan Plateau, known as the “Roof of the World” and the “Third Pole of the Earth”, hosts exceptionally rare plants, with over one-third of them found nowhere else on Earth, reported China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Feb 25, citing Chinese scientists.
“This makes it a global biodiversity hot spot,” Wang Tao, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research and the lead author of a related study published recently in the journal Nature Communications, has said.
“For decades, scientists have tried to understand how these mountain-specific plants developed their unique distribution patterns,” he has said.
Working with researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Peking University, Wang’s team has found that historical shifts in tree growth limits — the highest altitude at which trees can survive — had played a crucial role.
The study is stated to have re-created a model to show how the plateau’s tree line, the upper forest limit, moved over time since the last Ice Age 22,000 years ago.
Wang has said it is widely accepted that the uplift of the plateau played a key role in the origin of its flora, while periodic climate fluctuations during the Quaternary Period 2.6 million years ago drove the diversification of species.
Earlier studies were stated to have warned that global warming pushes trees higher up mountains, squeezing the habitat of alpine plants. This new research is stated to reveal that past tree line shifts had also left a lasting mark.
“Areas with stable environments over time developed more unique plant mixes. In contrast, regions with frequent tree line changes had simpler, more uniform plant communities,” Wang has said.
Team member Xu Jinfeng has said: “Think of environmental changes as a sieve — only the toughest species survive repeated shifts, making plant groups look similar. Stable areas let plants develop special traits, creating richer diversity.”
The study has warned that rapid warming and rising tree lines could threaten the plateau’s unique plants.
“These species aren’t built to handle double pressures from climate change and invading trees,” Wang has said. “Our findings help design better protection plans.”