climate change

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...
The historical and iconographic research in the reconstruction of the variation of the Calderone Glacier: State of the art and perspective
The Calderone Glacier is characterised by a reduction phase since the end of the "Little Ice Age" (LIA) Auct., particularly strong during the last decade. In fact during the nineties a set of multidisciplinary researches started to evaluate the role of the Glacier like an indicator of the effects of human activities and finally of regional and global climatic change. The apparatus is now confined...
The potential effect of the enhanced greenhouse climate change on selected flora and fauna of the high country of mainland Australia

The possible effects of enhanced greenhouse climate change have been wide debated in the general and scientific community. The current distribution of alpine and high country flora and fauna species, their current predicted climatic envelope determined using BIOCLIM and several scenarios of regional climate change developed by the CSIRO were utilized to develop scenarios for the alpine...

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...
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-...

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...

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...

Climate change and the Australian ski industry
A skier survey was undertaken in three ski resorts in New South Wales and possible response strategies of the Australian ski industry to climate change were investigated. The skier survey showed that climate change would have significant implications for the Australian snow resorts in terms of visitor numbers. It was shown that Australian ski resorts would lose 44 per cent of their skiers if...
The potential effects of global warming on alpine soils in Australia
High-elevation ecosystems are predicted to be some of the terrestrial habitats most sensitive to climatic changes. However, the ecological consequences of changes in alpine environmental conditions, especially in alpine soils, are still unclear especially in Australia where little or no research has as yet been carried out. These ecosystems are composed of slow growing plants and soils which are...
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...

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