About Our Mountains

Views of Yushan from the south section two as walkingin Yushan National Park, there are thick green plantsspreading all the way toward the mountain top. These arethe Taiwanese fir tree. On summit, the vast blue-green areais the gramineae Taiwan arrow bamboo grove.

Going back 10,000 years in time, then speeding backtoward the present, one may discover that Taiwan fir treeforest gradually crawls its way up during this span of years.This migration was the result of climate change.

The Glacial Epoch

The story starts about 20,000 years ago. At the time theEarth entered the glacial epoch, the global temperaturedropped. Most places were covered with snow and ice.

Native biology in the north was unable to survive due tothe weather so they began a migration toward low latitudeareas. Taiwan, located on the Tropic of Cancer, becamethe refuge shelters of the living things from the north. Forinstance, the fir tree, the Single-seed juniper, the FormosanLandlocked Salmon (Oncorhynchus masou formosanusJordan et Oshima), the salamander and so on, arrived inTaiwan during the ice age. And about 10,000 years ago,the global temperature had gradually risen. The rise of sealevel caused Taiwan to be surrounded with water, blockingthe species from the north. The high elevation migrationbecame the only way in order to strive for survival. Butthe migration was difficult and slow. Many species wereunable to adapt to the environment change and gradually vanished in the process.

• upper：Taiwanese fir tree and Yushan Cane / Jinke International Advertising Record
• lower：Taiwanese fir trees / Fu Kuo-Ming

Fortunately, Taiwan is full of mountains, the north biologyfound the environment provides suitable temperatures,and eventually evolved as Taiwans endemic species.Henceforth they became permanent residents of Taiwan.They were named the survived species.

Traveling to Higher Elevations

Glacial epoch comes and goes, and the climate change is anatural phenomenon. But the lifestyle of human actuallyaccelerates the warming process and it is in an astonishingspeed. National Taiwan University Ecology and Evolvedbiology professor Li Ling-Ling said: “Nowadays climatechange is 15~40 times the speed of the glacial epochnatural vicissitude speed.”

With global temperature on the rise, the mountain issimilarly becoming the very first victim of the warmingprocess. The so-called survived species in various NationalParks is now being impacted. Facing this speed of climatechange, there is no more room for them to migrate.

“The 3ºC temperature elevation may possibly cause thebotanical zone to promote 500 meters upward.” ProfessorLi based on overseas research material forecast that thearea where botanical zone is located may be reduced dueto the higher elevation. And the botanic group located atthe summit region may possibly vanish as a result. That is,lives at higher elevation may possibly have no chance tosurvive.

The high elevation xylophytes: Taiwanese fir tree, theYushan Single-seed juniper, Taiwan chamaecyparisformosensis and the chamaecyparis obtusa var formosana andso on have slower vegetation cycles, therefore having theopportunity to become towering thousand-year old trees.But as the temperature continues to change drastically,their adaptiveness will not be able to catch up with theever changing environment and will soon face the severetest.

Other than the xylophytes, the herb also faces similarthreat. Pointed out by the Academia Sinica academicianZhou Changhong in his research report, there is a vasdiv>

• left：Taiwan chamaecyparis formosensis / Yang Yu-Hsin
• right：Formosan Landlocked Salmon (Oncorhynchus masouformosanus Jordan et Oshima) / Wen Kuo-Chang

Animals Face Dual Threats

For the plants without instant mobility, the fast elevationof temperature has created a survival challenge. How doesit affect animals?

Academia Sinica Biodiversity Research Center posdiv>

Ecology and Evolved Biology Research Institute ofNational Taiwan University Manager Li Pei-Fen,performed a research on the birds in the nature woodsof the Yushan National Park at the elevation between1,400 and 1,500 meters in 1992 and performed the sameresearch again in 2006. It is discovered that their habitatrose 42.9 meters on average. Among the birds, WhitebrowedBush Robin (Tarsiger indicus) has the most drasticchange by 272 meters. Taiwan Fulvetta (Alcippe formosana)came in second and rose 143 meters.

These statistics represent the harsh migration process forthose biology. The experts indicated that although thetemperature decreases more progressively with the increaseof elevation, the microclimate change created by thecomplexity of mountain topography became the biologicalmigration barrier.

However, not all of them are moving upward. There are about 75% of the species migrating toward both higherelevation and latitude while the remaining 25% migratein the other direction. Li Pei-Fen’s research also discoveredthat the migration caused the increase in the density oftribal groups. It in turn forced five species of birds tomigrate to lower elevations. For example, White-browedBush Robin’s distribution dropped 9 meters.

• left：Taiwan Fulvetta (Alcippe formosana) / Chen Yung-Fu
• right：White-browed Bush Robin (Tarsiger indicus) / Chang Cheng-Hsiung

Under global warming, the majority of biology is facingthreats to their survival. Nevertheless, there are still somespecies that have benefited from it. Professor Li Pei-Fen, with the analysis of computer systems of the data ofatmospheric circulation patterns and the existing species,estimated the possible distribution of 17 unique birdspecies in Taiwan under the influence of climate changeof the coming 100 years. It has been discovered that 15 ofthem have migrated to higher elevations. Only the thrushGarrulax canorus and Taiwan Bulbul tribal groups willhave possible expansion in habitat. They not only still livein lower elevation areas, but also expand toward higherelevations. However, in these biospheres, the benefittingminorities may have been the invaders which causeddomain competition to the native species as they havealready been under the threat of global warming.

An Environment Creats More Sacrifice

In addition, species limited to geography distributions orlike amphibians whose life cycle depend heavily on bothwater and land face stronger challenge, the challenge iseven greater. For example, the salamander may possiblybe the first victim for cold and damp environment is anecessity.

At present there are five known salamanders in Taiwan, forthose that are distributed through Shei-Pa National Park,they reside in areas between 1,100~1,200 meters, all othersreside in areas between 2,000~3,000 meters. Becausethe mountainous areas near the ridgeline are usually verydry, the salamander trails are only found in small moistregions in groups of 20~30. Due to the environment,salamanders have been separated into smaller groups.This is the difficult situation that the salamanders livingin Taiwan’s habitats face. Taiwan Normal University LifeSciences honorary professor, Lyu Guang-Yang said thatthe northern area — For example: Japans salamanderpopulation is distributed at low elevations. Their habitatis a vast region, which makes reproduction and the migration easy. But Taiwans salamanders are affected bythe limitations of their geography and environment. Theirhabitats have been sequestered into smaller regions. Eachsmall tribal group is independent making it difficult forexchanges with other groups. If the environment changes,they are unable to migrate fast enough to a more suitableenvironment, in which case the small tribal group will verypossibly be annihilated. “Survival for salamanders is verydifficult, we do not want to make it any worse,” ProfessorLyu said sincerely.

Taiwans mountains are the sanctuary for survived species.But under the circumstances of global warming and therapid climate change, many of them eventually vanished.This disaster is in progress in Taiwan’s mountains. Humanbeings have over utilized the Earth’s resources and havealready initiated the butterfly effect (where a small changeat one place in a nonlinear system can result in largedifferences to a later state).

• upper：Guanwu Salamander / Yu Cheng-Hao