Locally eroded hillslopes of the eastern escarpment of Madagascar with changing habitat patterns for tropical plant species. (Location: Alaotra-Mangoro, Madagascar. Photo: Sean Willett)
Locally eroded hillslopes of the eastern escarpment of Madagascar with changing habitat patterns for tropical plant species. (Location: Alaotra-Mangoro, Madagascar. Photo: Sean Willett) Madagascar is home to over 11,000 plant species, 80 percent of which are found nowhere else on Earth. A recent study by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL and ETH Zurich has put forward a new hypothesis for the underlying cause of Madagascar's rich plant biodiversity, which has been regarded as an unsolved mystery of natural history. Madagascar is a species paradise. As a new study shows, landscape changes caused by non-uniform precipitation and rock erosion play a decisive role in the formation and evolution of new species. Madagascar exhibits a high mountainous escarpment near its east coast, formed during the breakup of the ancient continent of Pangea.
TO READ THIS ARTICLE, CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
And extend your reading, free of charge and with no commitment.
