Journal article
During the 1980s, a series of major changes to the Earth's environment, including increases in C02 levels and the hole in the ozone layer, were detected only because of the existence of long-term monitoring. The recognition of a lack of quantitative long-term information on the state of the environment came to the fore, and the need for national and international programmes to monitor...
The planet Earth is able to sustain life because of the existence of water in liquid form on its surface. More precisely, the lifeforms on Earth have flourished because of the simultaneous availability of air, water and soil over large parts of the surface of this planet, which made the-production of biomass possible. Among these three planetary resources, the availability of water, in...
As the highest and most dramatic features of the natural landscape, mountains have an extraordinary power to evoke the sacred. The ethereal rise of a ridge in mist, the glint of moonlight on an icy face, a flare of gold on a distant peak - such glimpses of transcendent beauty can reveal our world as a place of unimaginable mystery and splendor. In the fierce play of natural elements that swirl...
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-...
The purpose of this paper is to explain to all who love the mountains the different bands of vegetation that characterise the mountain as one climbs to the top. There may be those who see the mountains as one mass of plants species mixed in helter skelter fashion. In addition, the author aims to explain the species adaptation to various montane ecosystem zones and explain the values of...
When a few years ago Redlands Aggregates proposed to quarry out a small hill in Harris to produce materials for road building, there was an outcry from many quarters against such a move. After many hearings, inquiries and submissions, Redlands backed down and the Harris hill was saved.
Things work in different ways on the other side of the Atlantic, in the USA, where big business...
One of South America's most endangered forest ecosystems is the Polylepis forests (los bosques de kehuiña) in the Andean highlands. In Bolivia only about 650 km2 of Polylepis is left - down from an estimated potential distribution of 40.000 km2. The highland forests serves as important water catchment areas by "combing" humidity out of clouds and fog, and by...
The timberline zone in the Himalaya is a cradle of high temperate and low alpine biodiversity elements. It is a rich repository of highly sensitive elements which are of considerable biological and economic value. Among others, these include endemic, endangered, medicinal and edibles plant species. In view of the unique diversity of its biological components, representativeness, susceptibility...
As the dew is dried up by the morning sun,
So are the sins of humankind by the sight of the Himalayas.
- Hindu proverb
The above maxim which originated in the Hindu puranas, the religious scriptures in the Indian subcontinent, is as old as the mountains are. It clearly depicts the high place accorded to the Himalayas, high mountains. Perhaps...
This Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) Digest provides an overview of scientific activities undertaken within MAB Project 6, whose focus is on mountain areas. It considers MAB activities in the mountains of nine European countries -- Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and Switzerland -- and the former USSR. It is in these countries that the...
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