ABSTRACT
The issue of mountain biodiversity gains more and more importance in the scientific community as well as in international organisations. The term ‘cold spot’ is employed for distinct low diversity areas, as opposed to the more familiar ‘hot spots’ of biodiversity. Rare examples of biodiversity studies in the Himalayas are confined to small plots, selected habitats or small sections of the altitudinal gradient, and mainly focused on montane forests. The chapter aims to analysing altitudinal and latitudinal diversity gradients of the Karakorum Divide, based on a large set of original data on vascular plant distribution. It provides baseline data of plant diversity for the Karakorum Divide. The chapter identifies patterns in large-scale altitudinal and periphery-central diversity gradients. It discusses their significance with respect to biogeography, environmental evolution and human impact. Minimum-maximum altitude distribution data were determined for vascular plant species of all study sites along the Karakorum transect.
