Mount Everest’s harsh heights shelter a rich array of life
The bleak slopes of Mount Everest harbour an impressive wealth of biodiversity, according to DNA shed by the residents of the world’s tallest mountain1.
Less than 3% of Earth’s land surface is too high for trees to grow. Little is known about the organisms that do inhabit this extreme environment, which is difficult for scientists to reach.
To explore Everest’s life forms, Marisa Lim, previously at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York City, and her colleagues collected water from 10 ponds and streams between 4,500 and 5,500 metres above sea level, more than halfway up the 8,849-metre peak. They extracted environmental DNA (eDNA) — genetic fragments shed by living things into their surroundings — and found evidence of plants, fungi, animals and microorganisms.
Analysis showed that the eDNA came from organisms that belonged to 187 unique ‘orders’, broad categories into which all living things are classified. That means that one-sixth of Earth’s orders are represented on Everest, whose inhabitants include the Tibetan snowcock (Tetraogallus tibetanus) and the domestic dog (Canis familiaris).
The authors suggest that eDNA could be a powerful tool for examining ecosystems in understudied, hard-to-reach locations.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02195-9
References
Lim, M. C. W. et al. iScience https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104848 (2022).
