I was inspired to pursue the links between life and landscape in my own research by a paper by Corenblit and colleagues, who applied ecological and evolutionary concepts to show how and why organisms, geomorphic processes and landforms are intimately linked (Corenblit et al. Earth-Sci. Rev. 106, 307–331; 2011). What they found can be illustrated by the example of rivers: in rivers, strong water flow makes it difficult for plants to grow. Nevertheless, some plant species such as willows and poplars (Salicaceae) manage to gain ground and even improve living conditions in the river. When the river washes over these so-called ecosystem engineers during floods, their stems, twigs and leaves trap sediments among and behind them, and their roots keep strong hold of the soil beneath them. Thus, in time, the areas where the willows and poplars grow rise above the flowing water and form small, protected islands where more plant species can establish. Corenblit and colleagues suggested that such feedbacks between ecosystem engineers and landforms have developed over millions of years as species affected by geomorphic processes adapted to the changes they made and became even more capable of building landforms.
Motivated by these ideas, I set forth to explore linkages between life and landscape in high mountain landscapes. In front of a retreating glacier in Switzerland, we found a flowering plant species (mountain avens; Dryas octopetala L.) that can survive on steep, unstable moraine slopes. Once this plant manages to grow to a certain size, it improves living conditions by stabilizing the slope with its roots and dense, mat-forming shoots (Eichel et al. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 41, 406–419; 2016).
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