Abstract:

The alpine regions ( particular in the region above the tree line) and arctic regions are regarded as one of the most extreme areas of the land because of their harsh environmental conditions. However, both regions have very rich and valuable
biological resources in the world. Therefore, the adaptive mechanism and strategies of the alpine and arctic plants have received much attention since 1896, because they are the hotspot and bottleneck in the study of the evolutionary courses of the creatures. In this paper, the special life form of alpine and arctic plants are analyzed with data from many study fields such as plant ecology, plant physiology, aerography and so on and regarded it as a major adaptive mechanism. Furthermore, the authors affirmed the closely relationship between the characteristic adaptive phenomena and the stressful environmental factors by analyzing the regional climatic features of the habitation in which the alpine and arctic plants grow.

Key words: Alpine plant, Arctic plant, Plant adaptive strategy, Plant functional ecology