Mountain Plants Make Their Own Steady Living Conditions

Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – Soil erosion is a major problem on agricultural and natural hillslopes worldwide. To combat soil erosion and create flat, stable surfaces, we humans often build artificial terraces, such as rice or vineyard terraces.

(a) Terrace creation by Dryas octopelata. (b,c) Top and side view of experiment plant plot. Orange indicates erosion, green the plant area, blue the terrace. Source: Eichel et al. 2026

Plants appear to do the same, creating their own small terraces to better survive and thrive. New research has further unraveled the mechanism of how plants create these stable habitats. Can we use this knowledge to improve our own solutions to protect eroding hillslopes?

Creating mountain slopes in the Netherlands

Small vegetated terraces are a common feature on steep, cold or dry hillslopes. Being far away from the high mountains she usually works on, researcher Jana Eichel built her own small slopes in Utrecht University’s Botanical Gardens.

During the summers of 2023 and 2024, botanical garden visitors could observe in real-time how Eichel and her team conducted their experiments. Within two years, she managed to create terraces similar to those on real mountain slopes. By taking detailed measurements of soil erosion and plant and terrain changes over time, they figured out how certain plant species create small terraces for themselves.

Left: Human-made terraces in Banaue, Philippines. Right: Naturally formed terraces. Images: Google Earth, Wikimedia Commons.

Stiff and dense stems form terraces

They found striking results. Eichel: “We found that plant species with stiff and dense stems, often growing slowly, such as tussock grasses and shrubs that grow close to the ground, created small terraces on our artificial slopes.”

By forming these terraces, some several tens of centimetres long and wide, the plants reduced soil erosion, increased the amount of water that was able to seep into the soil, and overall made the soil they grew on more stable. They had improved their own living conditions.

Swiss army knife of terrace building

Is there a terrace-building-‘Swiss army knife’-plant species? Eichel: “We didn’t find a plant species that was able to do it all.

But when you need a plant that quickly reduces erosion, fast-growing ‘opportunist’ or especially ‘conqueror’ species would work best.

For long-term solutions, we recommend more slowly growing, but terrace creating ‘blocker’ or ‘builder’ species.” These specifications can help select appropriate species for soil erosion reduction on mountains and other hillslopes.

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Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer