climate change

The challenges of mountain environments: Water, natural resources, hazards, desertification and the implications of climate change

Mountain ecosystems are a biosphere reserve. They harbor a wide range of significant resources including animals, plants as well as minerals. Mountains are home to about 10 percent of the global population. A significant high proportion of 25 - 30 percent directly depends on the resources flowing from mountain regions. Functionally, mountains play a critical role in the environment and...

Long-term variability in temperature, precipitation, and snow cover in the Australian Alps: Is there a link with declines of alpine frogs?
A number of species of frogs are confined to the Australian Alps. These include notably two species of Corroboree frog (Pseudophryne corroboree and P. pengilleyi), the Alpine Tree Frog (Litoria verreauxii) and the Baw Baw Frog (Philoria frosti). Three species, the Southern Corroboree Frog, Northern Corroboree Frog and the Baw Baw frog are found only in particularly wet and cool parts of the Alps...
Snow as a defining character of the alpine/subalpine fauna
There is an obvious decline in animal species abundance with increased altitude within the latitudinal band of south-eastern mainland Australia which encompasses the Australian Alps. Among the vertebrates, there is only one endemic mammal species, four frogs and five reptiles. The greatest degree of endemism occurs among the invertebrates. In the Australia Alps it is the snow rather than the...
Winter shade increases snow gum growth
There has been an enormous emphasis placed on the impact of increased temperatures associated with global warming. Linked with climate change has been the possibility of future changes to the current location of the tree line. However at a finer scale the clearing of forest cover can lower temperature significantly. Not only is the thermal environment significantly modified when trees are removed...
Ecological and hydrological aspects of global warming in New Zealand
Scenarios for climate patterns in New Zealand for AD2030 suggest significant changes from those prevailing at the present time. In some respects they may be similar to patterns occurring 7-9000 years BP. One of the critical areas of current research is into timberline dynamics and ongoing studies suggest significant short term responses to climate warming. Soil regime and erosion responses are...
Cs-137 gamma peak detection in snow layers on Calderone Glacier
The Calderone Glacier, located in the Gran Sasso d'Italia mountain group (Abruzzo, Italy), is the most southern glacier in Europe. The reduced dimension and the general conditions of the glacier make it a powerful environmental indicator in evaluating global change processes including the radio-chemical pollution induced by human activity. Two high altitude samples of snow, collected during...
Himalayan ecohydrology: An emerging subject for restoration of the mountain system
The article briefly deals with the Himalayan Mountain System and the associated natural hazards due to huge snow and glacier fields at the highest elevation. Due to inherent sensitivity of these apex systems to global climatic change, emphasis is laid to initiate interdisciplinary research in hydrology affecting ecology and environment. Recommendations of a Regional Working Group on Mountain...
Climate change and mountain ecosystems

Over the past decade, the issue of climate change has risen rapidly to an important position on international scientific and political agendas. A number of key events in this process may be identified, beginning with the 1988 Conference on "The Changing Atmosphere" (World Meteorological Organization 1989), and the consequent establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC...

Abrupt climate changes revisited: How serious and how likely?

Widespread climate changes in the distant past were larger and more rapid than those experienced during more recent historical times. For example, the cooling of the climate leading into the last "ice age", the peak of which occurred roughly 21,000 years ago, and the subsequent climate transition to a warmer, more modern world were punctuated by abrupt climate changes that were one-...

Impacts of climatic change on mountain regions: A summary of the IPCC second assessment report
Mountains cover about 20% of continental surfaces and are the source of most of the world's major river systems. Mountains are under considerable stress from humans, and climate change would exacerbate existing conflicts between environmental and socioeconomic concerns. Paleo-environmental records indicate that past warming of climate has caused the distribution of vegetation to shift to higher...

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