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Trees cannot grow at high altitude, because of cold temperature or lack of available moisture. [82]: 51 The lack of trees causes an ecotone, or boundary, that is obvious to observers. This boundary is known as the tree line. The highest-altitude plant species is a moss that grows at 6,480 m (21,260 ft) on Mount Everest. [83]
Altitude sickness, the mildest form being acute mountain sickness (AMS), is a harmful effect of high altitude, caused by rapid exposure to low amounts of oxygen at high elevation. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] People's bodies can respond to high altitude in different ways.
However, the human body has both short-term and long-term adaptations to altitude that allow it to partially compensate for the lack of oxygen. There is a limit to the level of adaptation; mountaineers refer to the altitudes above 8,000 metres (26,000 ft) as the death zone , where it is generally believed that no human body can acclimatize .
Altitude research gets round this by studying the effects of oxygen deprivation on otherwise healthy people. Travelling to high altitude is often used as a way of studying the way the body responds to a shortage of oxygen. It is difficult and prohibitively expensive to conduct some of this research at sea level.
It is initially elevated in lowlanders who travel to high altitude, but reduces significantly over time as people acclimatize. [1] [2] In biological anthropology, HVR also refers to human adaptation to environmental stresses resulting from high altitude. [3] In mammals, HVR invokes several physiological mechanisms.
Mountain sickness can refer to: Altitude sickness or acute mountain sickness, a pathological condition that is caused by acute exposure to low air pressure Chronic mountain sickness , a disease that can develop during extended time living at altitude
Hypobaric decompression is the reduction in ambient pressure below the normal range of sea level atmospheric pressure. Altitude decompression is hypobaric decompression which is the natural consequence of unprotected elevation to altitude, while other forms of hypobaric decompression are due to intentional or unintentional release of pressurization of a pressure suit or pressurized compartment ...
High altitude breathing apparatus is a breathing apparatus which allows a person to breathe more effectively at an altitude where the partial pressure of oxygen in the ambient atmospheric air is insufficient for the task or to sustain consciousness or human life over the long or short term.