1. Plant communities of the alpine life zone are often species-poor due to the lack of species adapted to the hostile environmental conditions.
    
2. In mountainous areas, the steep ecological gradients lead to a small-scale mosaic of different habitats.
    
3. Competition between species or individuals leads to the mutual reduction of their performance, whereas facilitation means that a species promotes the presence of another species.
    
4. Since human activities in the alpine life zone are less intense, the plant species of this zone are less menaced than in lower regions.
    
5. Paleoendemic species are the result of a reduction of their distribution area due to environmental changes, while neoendemics are closely related species that result from their divergent adaptation to differing environmental conditions.
    
6. The high richness of vascular plant species in mountainous regions is the consequence of the high and small-scale diversity of abiotic life conditions.

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29 August 2011
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