The upper timberline is the most conspicuous vegetation limit in high-mountain areas of all continents, except for the Antarctic. Timberline is also an important ecological boundary, marked by a change in site conditions and plant communities when crossing the forest limit. For example, above the closed forest topoclimatic conditions, soil distribution patterns, intensity of soil erosion, etc. are totally different from the forest belt. This also holds true for the habitat conditions of the forest-alpine tundra ecotone. It is characterized by a greater habitat variety compared to the closed mountain forest. The fact is that no other vegetation limit has a comparable effect on the highmountain environment, making it all the more astounding that scientists have addressed timberline studies only relatively recently. In general, timberlines that have been disturbed by human impact are best investigated because access mostly is relatively easy.
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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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(2009). History and Present State of Timberline Research. In: Holtmeier, FK. (eds) Mountain Timberlines. Advances in Global Change Research, vol 36. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9705-8_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9705-8_2
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