Cambio climático y diversidad de la flora vascular en las montañas tabulares de Guayana

Among the potential consequences of the projected global warming on high-mountain environments is biodiversity loss by upward migration of environmental conditions and the consequent habitat vanishing for upland species. So far, such effect has been considered only for temperate and boreal mountain ranges. Here, the same situation is analysed on the neotropical Guayana mountains, in northern South America. A preliminary appraisal based on 83 species of vascular plants shows that 8-33% of them are threatened of extinction by habitat loss. Most are endemic, hence their disappearance would affect global biodiversity.