16週 (3) 5-2 p.90

Mountains play important ecological roles. They contain the majority for the world's forests, which are habitats for much of the planet's terrestrial biodiversity. They often are habitats for endemic species found nowhere esle on earth. They also serve as sanctuaries for animal species driven from lowland areas.
Mountains also help regulate the earth's climate.Mountaintops covered with ice and snow affect climate by reflecting solar radiation back into space. This helps cool the earth and offset global warming. However, many of the world's mountain glaciers are melting mostly because of global warmming. As the earth gets warmer, mountaintop glaciers and other land-based glaciers could melt and help raise sea levels.
Finally,mountains play a critical role in the hydrologic cycle by serving as major storehouses of water. In the warmer weather of spring and summer, much of their snow and ice melts and is released to streams for use by wildlife and by humans for drinking and irrigating crops. Despite their ecological,economic,and cultueal importance, the fate oh mountain ecosystems has not been a high priority of governments or for many environmental organizations.

山扮演了重要的生態角色，它包含了世界上大多數的森林也提供了地球上陸生生物多樣性的棲息地，山也常被發現地方性的種類，也提供在低窪地區的陸生生物避難所。

山也幫助調節地球氣候，山頂上覆蓋的冰和雪會反射太陽輻射，有幫助冷卻地球的溫室效應，許多的高山冰河融化是因為全球的暖化，而地球的暖化會幫助海平面的上升。

最後，山也扮演水文循環必須的角色是水的重要寶庫，在溫暖的季節像春天和夏天山頂上的冰和雪融化釋放到河裡提供野生生物和人引用及灌溉作物，它對生態、經濟、文化都很重要，所以政府和環境組織應該要優先保護山這個的生態系。