The research team, led by Professor Jian Peng and lead author Tao Hu from Peking University, along with collaborators from Shanghai Normal University, Beijing Forestry University, and Beijing Normal University, analyzed the spatial relationships among human pressure, biodiversity, and protected areas across mountain elevation gradients. Their findings showed that the upslope expansion of human activities created an ecological conflict zone at mid elevations, revealing a vertical mismatch that could fundamentally transform how global conservation targets were implemented and evaluated.
Mountain regions were often considered as natural refuges for biodiversity because their steep terrain and harsh climates have historically limited human activities. However, a new study showed that this assumption was increasingly outdated as human pressure expanded upward along elevation in mountain regions.
Researchers found that biodiversity, human pressure and protected area coverage were unevenly distributed along elevation gradients. While protected areas were frequently located at very high elevations, biodiversity in many mountain regions peaked at mid elevations. At the same time, human activities such as agriculture expansion, tourism infrastructure and road development were increasingly moving into these mid elevation zones.
This convergence was creating an ecological conflict zone, where human pressure overlapped with biodiversity hotspots, but protected area coverage remained relatively low. As a result, conservation efforts may appear successful when measured by total protected areas, yet still failed to safeguard the most ecologically important parts of mountain ecosystems.
To address this challenge, the researchers proposed a new conservation perspective that considered elevation-dependent dynamics. Instead of simply expanding protected areas, conservation planning should prioritize elevational connectivity and apply differentiated management strategies across elevation zones.
Under this framework, low elevations should focus on ecological restoration, mid elevations require flexible governance approaches such as Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) to balance conservation and livelihoods, and high elevations should prioritize strict protection of climate refugia and slow-recovering ecosystems.
By integrating elevation into conservation planning, the study suggested that global biodiversity targets can be implemented more effectively in mountain regions and better safeguard biodiversity under accelerating global change.
National Science Review