Alps
Alpine grasslands are ecosystems with a great diversity of plant species. However, little is known about other levels of biodiversity, such as landscape diversity, diversity of biological interactions of plants with herbivores or fungal pathogens, and genetic diversity. The authors therefore explored natural and anthropogenic determinants of grassland biodiversity at several...
Landscape is an important resource for mountain regions, particularly for tourism. Guiding future landscape development is necessary to meet the expectations of mountain inhabitants, tourists, and the general public outside mountain areas. The studies presented here show how different societal groups perceive past and future landscape changes in the Alps. The results reveal...
Alpine landscapes arouse emotions and yearnings: feelings of belonging, freedom, or holidays. Images and notions about Alpine landscapes not only influence landscape experiences, they also play an important role in decision-making processes and conflict mitigation. Different stakeholders - i.e. locals, tourists, tourist entrepreneurs, politicians, farmers, hunters, etc. -...
Swiss National Research Programs (NRPs) are usually geared to addressing issues of major societal concern. In so doing these programmes produce different kinds of knowledge: analytical knowledge necessary for revealing the driving forces, conflicting interests and institutional settings that govern the processes under scrutiny; target knowledge oriented towards revealing the...
Prominent construction projects in Switzerland, such as the Sawiris luxury resort in Andermatt planned by Orascom Hotels & Development, Cairo (Egypt), or the idea of a hotel and apartment tower at Schatzalp, Davos, demonstrate how rapidly Alpine landscapes may undergo major changes. Decisions on whether or not such changes are supported by policymakers should be based on...
Winter tourism is highly sensitive to climate change. The sufficiently studied altitudinally dependent line of natural snow reliability is losing its relevance for skilift operators in Austria, where 59% of the ski area is covered by artificial snowmaking. But the diffusion of snowmaking facilities cannot be monocausally linked to climate change, as trends in tourism, prestige, and competitive...
In current scientific and political discourses there is common agreement that the future of Alpine agriculture is a challenge not only for farmers, but also for society at large. What remains unclear is the question of how to adapt agriculture towards sustainable development of the Alpine territory in a manner that takes sufficient account of local diversity. The authors propose to treat...
This report is based on a 2003 project called 'Patterns of sustainable development in the remote municipalities of Trentino (Italy)' in which researchers asked 'why are remote villages declining?' Based on demographic research from 1901 to 2001, they selected five socio-economically marginal communities in this geographical area for fieldwork.
Many forested areas in industrial countries are exposed to excess deposition of airborne nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S). Biodiversity decline is one of many observed effects. Unlike N deposition, S loads have been decreasing continuously over the last 25 years. In this paper, we evaluated the use of species diversity in four taxonomic groups (vascular plants, lichens, bryophytes, birds) as...
More detailed information is probably available about the Alps than about any other multinational mountain range on Earth. This book provides a remarkable summary of much of this information, derived primarily from the DIAMONT project, funded by the European Commission. The spatial scope of the atlas is the area to which the Alpine Convention applies (though not including Monaco, which is one...
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