Höhenschicht

Höhenschicht is a concept in geography and ecology that describes the vertical organization of landscapes with elevation. It refers to how environmental conditions and biological communities change as one moves upward on mountains or high plateaus, creating distinct elevation belts.

The primary drivers are the lapse of temperature with height, changes in precipitation and wind, variations in solar radiation, and soil development. With increasing altitude, temperatures generally fall and climate conditions shift, leading to characteristic changes in vegetation and animal communities. These elevation belts, or Höhenschichten, often include lowland or foothill zones, montane zones, subalpine zones, alpine zones, and, at the highest elevations, nival or glacial areas in suitable regions. In tropical mountains, additional belts such as cloud forest or páramo-like ecosystems may appear, reflecting different moisture and temperature regimes.

Applications of the Höhenschicht concept include mapping and describing vegetation belts, studying biogeographic distributions, and analyzing ecological processes such as species turnover and nutrient cycling across elevation. It also serves as a framework for assessing the impacts of climate change, since warming can shift belt boundaries upward, altering habitat availability and community composition.

The concept is related to broader ideas of vertical stratification in mountains and is used in physical geography, ecology, and conservation planning to understand how elevation shapes biodiversity and ecosystem function.