Finally, Hawaii, which is close

to the northern tropical limit, harbours TAE up to 4200 m (Leuschner, 1996). Apart from these well-defined TAE, several other regions such as the tropical African islands of Madagascar (2876 m), La Réunion (3069 m), Cape Verde (2829 m), Bioko (3012 m), and the Comoros (2361 m) have all been claimed to harbour TAE (Leuschner, 1996 and Körner, 2003), although precise information is lacking. Also, in South-eastern Brazil, scattered páramos have been described at relatively see more low altitudes on the tops of mountains (Pico de Bandeira, 2890 m; Safford, 1999). Alpine environments are generally presented as a homogeneous group of areas located on all Epacadostat supplier continents. They indeed have many common characteristics, especially a number of climatic

features such as increasing wind strength (but see Smith, 1972), high solar radiation, and a low minimum air temperature with large diurnal fluctuations (Smith and Young, 1987, Rundel et al., 1994, Körner, 2003 and Körner, 2011). They also share other similarities such as steep slopes, which generate strong habitat variation at local scale, and the influence of past glacial fluctuations (Körner, 2003 and Molau, 2004). However, a large body of literature indicates that major climatic and biogeographical features vary between tropical alpine and temperate or (sub)polar systems, with strong effects on plant distribution, morphology, and community organization (Billings and Mooney, 1968, Rundel et al., 1994, Luteyn, 1999, Leuschner, 2000, Sarmiento et al., 2003, Kleier and Rundel, 2009, Nagy and Grabherr, 2009, Buytaert et al., 2011 and Anthelme et al., 2012). Aware of these differences, Nagy and Grabherr (2009) have proposed a conceptual framework to classify the different alpine ecosystems continuously along three environmental Cediranib (AZD2171) gradients: altitude, availability of water, and seasonality. To document the specific environmental characteristics of TAE and their consequences for plant–plant interactions, we have considered these three

variables together with biogeographical variables. One feature shared by all TAE is that the daily amplitude of air temperature exceeds the seasonal amplitude, which becomes negligible close to the equator (Billings and Mooney, 1968, Rundel, 1994, Körner, 2003 and Nagy and Grabherr, 2009). A key consequence of low seasonality is the absence of persisting snowbeds (Körner, 2003 and Nagy and Grabherr, 2009) which are considered as “one of the most important factors controlling microclimate and plant growing conditions for arctic and alpine (seasonal) ecosystems” (Wipf and Rixen, 2010). The absence of persisting snow cover in TAE has, at least, five consequences on plant communities as it generates (1) year-round periods of vegetative growth and absence of permafrost (Meinzer et al.