Global Change and Mountain Regions: An Overview of Current Knowledge (Advances in Global Change Research) (Advances in Global Change Research)

Mountain regions occupy about a quarter of the global terrestrial land surface and provide goods and services to more than half the humanity. Global environmental change threatens the integrity of these systems and their ability to provide the goods and services upon which humanity has come to depend. This book gives an overview of the state of research in fields pertaining to the detection, understanding and prediction of global change impacts in mountain regions. More than 60 contributions from paleoclimatology, cryospheric research, hydrology, ecology, and development studies are compiled in this volume, each with an outlook on future research directions. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction: The International Year of Mountains Challenge and Opportunity for Mountain Research....Pages 1-8 Front Matter....Pages 9-10 A Dynamical Perspective on High Altitude Paleoclimate Proxy Timeseries....Pages 11-20 Understanding the Spatial Heterogeneity of Global Environmental Change in Mountain Regions....Pages 21-30 Ice Cores from Tropical Mountain Glaciers as Archives of Climate Change....Pages 31-38 The Contribution of Cosmogenic Nuclides to Unraveling Alpine Paleoclimate Histories....Pages 39-49 Holocene Glacier Fluctuations and Winter Precipitation Variations in Southern Norway....Pages 51-60 Glacier and Climate Variability in the Mountains of the Former Soviet Union during the last 1000 Years....Pages 61-72 Glacier-Climate Models as Palaeoclimatic Information Sources: Examples from the Alpine Younger Dryas Period....Pages 73-81 Holocene Environmental Change in the Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau Region: Lake Sediments and the Future....Pages 83-92 Water Resources in the Arid Mountains of the Atacama Desert (Northern Chile): Past Climate Changes and Modern Conflicts....Pages 93-104 Palaeolimnological Investigations in the Alps: The Long-Term Development of Mountain Lakes....Pages 105-112 High Mountain Lakes and Atmospherically Transported Pollutants....Pages 113-121 Trace Metals, Fly-ash Particles and Persistent Organic Pollutants in European Remote Mountain Lakes....Pages 123-132 Long-term Responses of Mountain Ecosystems to Environmental Changes: Resilience, Adjustment, and Vulnerability....Pages 133-143 Climate Fluctuations Derived from Tree-rings and Other Proxy-records in the Chilean Andes: State of the Art and Future Prospects....Pages 145-156 Biogeographical Consequences of Recent Climate Changes in the Southern Andes of Argentina....Pages 157-166 Front Matter....Pages 167-168 Mountain Glaciers in Global Climate-related Observing Systems....Pages 169-175 Mountain Glaciers are at Risk of Extinction....Pages 177-184 Low Latitude Glaciers: Unique Global Climate Indicators and Essential Contributors to Regional Fresh Water Supply. A Conceptual Approach....Pages 185-195 Glaciers of the Tropical Andes: Indicators of Global Climate Variability....Pages 197-204 Front Matter....Pages 167-168 Glacier Recession in the Peruvian Andes: Climatic Forcing, Hydrologic Impact and Comparative Rates Over Time....Pages 205-214 Climate Change, Mountain Permafrost Degradation and Geotechnical Hazard....Pages 215-224 Glacier and Permafrost Hazards in High Mountains....Pages 225-234 Impact of Climatic Changes on Snow Cover and Snow Hydrology in the French Alps....Pages 235-242 Modelling the Response of Mountain Glacier Discharge to Climate Warming....Pages 243-252 Front Matter....Pages 253-254 Orographic Precipitation and Climate Change....Pages 255-266 Monitoring Climate Variability and Change in the Western United States....Pages 267-274 Spatial Heterogeneity of Snow Conditions and Evapotranspiration in the Swiss Alps....Pages 275-282 Runoff Processes in Mountain Headwater Catchments: Recent Understanding and Research Challenges....Pages 283-295 Runoff Generation Processes on Hillslopes and Their Susceptibility to Global Change....Pages 297-307 Identifying Space-time Patterns of Runoff Generation: A Case Study from the Löhnersbach Catchment, Austrian Alps....Pages 309-320 Soil Erosion and Runoff Generation Related to Land Use Changes in the Pyrenees....Pages 321-330 The Role of Riparian Zones in Steep Mountain Watersheds....Pages 331-342 The Use of Hydrological Models for the Simulation of Climate Change Impacts on Mountain Hydrology....Pages 343-354 Effects of Climate Variability and Change on Mountain Water Resources in the Western U.S.....Pages 355-364 Front Matter....Pages 365-366 The Green Cover of Mountains in a Changing Environment....Pages 367-375 The Response of Alpine Plants to Environmental Change: Feedbacks to Ecosystem Function....Pages 377-382 Ecological Climate Impact Research in High Mountain Environments: GLORIA (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments) — its Roots, Purpose and Long-term Perspectives....Pages 383-391 A Global Assessment of Mountain Biodiversity and its Function....Pages 393-400 Potential Impacts of Global Change on Vegetation in Australian Alpine Landscapes: Climate Change, Landuse, Vegetation Dynamics and Biodiversity Conservation....Pages 401-408 Front Matter....Pages 365-366 Ecological Effects of Land-use Changes in the European Alps....Pages 409-420 Climate Interactions in Montane Meadow Ecosystems....Pages 421-427 High Elevation Ecosystem Responses to Atmospheric Deposition of Nitrogen in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, USA....Pages 429-436 Mountain Lakes as Indicators of the Cumulative Impacts of Ultraviolet Radiation and other Environmental Stressors....Pages 437-447 The Role of Mid-latitude Mountains in the Carbon Cycle: Global Perspective and a Western US Case Study....Pages 449-456 Remote Sensing Detection of High Elevation Vegetation Change....Pages 457-465 Monitoring Networks for Testing Model-Based Scenarios of Climate Change Impact on Mountain Plant Distribution....Pages 467-476 Projecting the Impacts of Climate Change on Mountain Forests and Landscapes....Pages 477-487 Assessing Climate Change Effects on Mountain Ecosystems Using Integrated Models: A Case Study....Pages 489-500 Detecting Global Change at Alpine Treeline: Coupling Paleoecology with Contemporary Studies....Pages 501-508 Front Matter....Pages 509-510 The Risks Associated with Climatic Change in Mountain Regions....Pages 511-519 Forests in Sustainable Mountain Development....Pages 521-529 Institutional Dynamics and Interplay: Critical Processes for Forest Governance and Sustainability in the Mountain Regions of Northern Thailand....Pages 531-540 State Simplifications of Land-Use and Biodiversity in the Uplands of Yunnan, Eastern Himalayan Region....Pages 541-550 Mountain Biodiversity, Land Use Dynamics and Traditional Ecological Knowledge....Pages 551-561 Land Use Intensification around Nature Reserves in Mountains: Implications for Biodiversity....Pages 563-571 Nature Conservation Value of European Mountain Farming Systems....Pages 573-582 Economic Globalisation and its Repercussions for Fragile Mountains and Communities in the Himalayas....Pages 583-591 Research Partnerships for Mitigating Syndromes of Global Change in Mountain Regions....Pages 593-603 Monitoring and Modelling for the Sustainable Management of Water Resources in Tropical Mountain Basins: The Mount Kenya Example....Pages 605-616 Front Matter....Pages 509-510 Challenges in Mountain Watershed Management....Pages 617-625 Overcoming the Vertical Divide: Legal, Economic, and Compensation Approaches for Sustainable Management of Mountain Watersheds....Pages 627-636 Future Research Directions....Pages 637-650 Back Matter....Pages 651-652