North of the Himalayas
The Himalayas are the highest mountain range in the world, nestled between China and Nepal, on the southern edge of China's Tibetan Plateau. The Himalayas stretch 2,400 km in all lengths from the Nanga-Palbat Peak in Kashmir in the west) to the Nanga Bawa Peak at the great bend of the Brahmaputra River in the east. The height of the Himalayas, the large span and the diversity of the terrain change have created a rich and diverse ecology of the community. Depending on altitude and rainfall, we can divide the vegetation of the Himalayas into four zones – tropical, subtropical, temperate and alpine. However, differences in local topography and climate, as well as light and wind, also make the composition of vegetation in each zone quite different.
From the tropical evergreen rainforest (limited to the humid hills of the Eastern Himalayas and The Middle Himalayas), to the evergreen dipterocarp forest, to the oak and chestnut forests that cover the west from Arunachal Pradesh to central Nepal, the transformation of the entire vegetation amazes me at the magical power of nature. But behind the transformation of the two plants, it often means that there are complex community staggered areas here. Here, the ecology changes and populations compete fiercely – the dominant species transition from one species to another. Higher up in the mountains, they are replaced by montane forests, and the most typical evergreen tree in the forest is a pandanus tree (arguably the dominant species of this small community). Whether it is low-latitude mountains or high-latitude mountains, whether it is mountains in marine climates or mountains in continental climates, species diversity always gradually decreases with the increase of altitude without exception.
Pandanus tree
With the increase of altitude, it is reached the alpine grasslands and alpine meadows and desert areas of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Because the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is 4500 meters above sea level, the temperature is low, the precipitation is small, and there is permafrost in the area all year round, which not only causes the root system of tall trees to be unable to grow, but also cannot meet their needs for temperature, moisture, light, etc. So the presence of these plants can hardly be found here. Also because of this living environment, the vertical structure of the community plants is not complicated, and the stratification phenomenon is not obvious. It can be seen that the plant community here cannot alleviate the contradiction between plants because of the competition for sunlight, space, water and mineral nutrients through the phenomenon of stratification. Therefore, under the action of natural selection and evolution, the dominant species to survive under the foot of this rock and ice are small annual hardy herbs such as artemisia spp., purple needlegrass, sand fixing grass, Tibetan artemisia, cushion-shaped camel velvet quinoa and so on. These herbs are cold tolerant and require relatively little energy to grow, and the root system does not need to pass through the frozen soil, which makes them better adapt to this more difficult living environment. Among them, the relative density of Artemisia spp. is large, the frequency of occurrence is high, and the uniformity is also large, which undoubtedly belongs to the dominant species and has obvious control over the formation of community structure.
Alpine grasslands of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
In addition to plants, this community also has Tibetan antelope that feed on plants. Tibetan antelope mostly live in groups on the Tibetan Plateau at an altitude of 4500 meters, and through mutual assistance within the population, they can avoid some predators and improve their survival rate. However, it is also inevitable that the fighting behavior of the female Tibetan antelope caused by reproductive factors is inevitable. In the Tibetan Plateau community, brown bears and Tibetan foxes compete with each other — they mostly prey on pikas that live in caves and feed on tough grasses. Cunning Tibetan foxes often follow in the footsteps of brown bears — only brown bears have the strength to dig holes in the frozen soil of the Tibetan Plateau in May and unexpectedly grab pikas trying to escape from the other end of the hole. Predation and predation are always common in nature, and it is precisely because of the presence of predators such as brown bears and Tibetan foxes that the fragile ecological environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau can be maintained and the diversity of communities can be maintained, otherwise the number of plateau plants with slow growth rates will rapidly decrease due to the large number of pikas, thus causing a devastating blow to the ecological environment of the region.
Tibetan antelope
In addition to the above animals, the highest jumping spiders live here, which use their extraordinary bouncing power to prey. There is no doubt that this community certainly has its food as well — small flies and jumping insects (primitive insects that feed on any food brought up from low altitude by the wind). Snow leopard, an ancient inhabitant of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, but due to the loss of habitat, the number or population density of snow leopards is relatively small. Their whereabouts are uncertain and elusive. Incredibly, in the extreme environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, such as the extreme height and thin air, there are snakes. They are by no means excellent cold resistance, and their presence is more reflective of the spatial heterogeneity of the community. The snakes that live here are hot spring snakes that live in hot springs, unlike other animals living in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau who live in low temperatures, they live here warmly and comfortably by the heat generated by the activity of underground volcanoes. Over time, spotted geese, the tallest bird, have also flown from the other side of the Himalayas to the Tibetan Plateau, where they tend to nest and raise chicks by the water's edge. Behind the seemingly natural site selection is actually a natural law - the spotted goose uses relatively favorable terrain to effectively avoid Tibetan wolves, which also greatly increases the abundance of species on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Snow leopards in the Himalayas
Compared with the seasonal changes in plant communities, the changes in animals in the Tibetan Plateau communities will be more obvious. Most typical birds, before winter arrives, overcome obstacles to cross the Himalayas to reach the relatively warmer other side for the winter. Like Tibetan antelope, snow leopard, etc., this is also moving to areas with less snow and relatively abundant food. Pikas, on the other hand, accumulate piles of hay near the mouth of the cave, and brown bears hibernate. All of this is a significant feature of the seasonal activities of the animals on the Tibetan Plateau and their good adaptation to the environment.