The first famous natural scientist to determine how plants change with altitude on tall mountains was Alexander Von Humboldt and Aime Bonpland when climbing some very high volcanoes in South America like Chimborazo at well ove 20,000 feet high and they observed that different plants grow at different altitudes as altitude increases so that as the mountain was ascended the new environments of temperature, moisture,etc would become abiotic for the lower plants but acceptable for the higher elevation plants. In these cases in South America, the lower elevations had very warm temperatures and high humidity so would grow tropical plants with probably large leaves like palm trees etc. On the other hand at high elevations the temperature would be significantly decreased and probably humidity decreased too so only rugged plants like say lichens could grow. At intermediate elevations, most likely say pine trees could grow as I know they do at moderate elevations in Honduras for example.
When you compare different organisms and see that they have the same or similar anatomic traits, it's reasonable to assume the organisms share a common ancestor where they would have gotten trait from. (evolution)
Coniferous trees dominate Boreal forests rather than tundra because of the lack of permanently frozen soil.
a lack of permanently frozen soil.
<u>Explanation:</u>
Boreal forests are characterized by a cold but not so cold weather. This means that it is too cold for the growth of deciduous trees. When it comes to the growth of tundra, the weather isn’t cold enough for the growth of tundra.
Tundra requires permafrost which is a permanently frozen layer of ground . The Boreal forests lack permafrost and thus isn’t suitable for the growth of tundra vegetation.
