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ENVIRONMENT, RESEARCH
 Observing environmental change – a mountain of a task
Future climate warming is expected to be especially marked in colder regions, such as mountains and northern climes. Scientists in the EU-backed Glochamore project are developing a network of sites in selected biosphere reserves for observing and studying signs of climate change in nature and in the people who inhabit these regions.
 | Entlebuch Biosphere Reserve, Switzerland.
© UNESCO MAB programme |
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Glaciers, permafrost and alpine regions are sensitive to changes in atmospheric temperature and act as an indicator of global climate change. Warming during the 20th century has already had a pronounced effect on glacial and periglacial mountain belts, according to reports. If this trend continues, experts predict smaller mountain glaciers could melt, areas of frozen ground could thaw and alpine regions could shrink.
The main drivers of change in alpine environments are climate, land use and nitrogen deposits, say experts. What’s more, ecosystem changes are likely to affect water yield and quality, as well as soil stability, which have a cascading effect on local communities.
The Glochamore EU project is working on maintaining a network of observation posts to monitor the effects of such changes on the natural world but also on the people living in these colder climes. The main partners in the Sixth Framework Programme project are the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), which emphasises “real projects in real places”, and UNESCO's (United Nations Educational and Cultural Organisation) mountain biosphere reserves (MAB) programme.
As part of its mission to communicate the challenges of mountain climate change to a wider audience, Glochamore has organised several conferences and published reports. A recent event, called the ‘Open Science Conference on Global Change in Mountain Regions’, took place in Perth (Scotland). This meeting builds on successful gatherings in Vienna (Austria) in 2004, and the project’s kick off meeting at the Entlebuch Biosphere Reserve (Switzerland) in November 2003.
Mountain livelihood
In the space of two years, the project has developed a plan for environmental and social monitoring in mountain regions that is helping to implement global change research strategies in selected UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (MBRs). It has defined indicators to detect and analyse signals of change in these high-altitude regions, and to analyse direct cause-effect relationships in individual ecological systems. The carefully chosen markers show changes derived from the complex interactions of different global change drivers.
Specifically, the network of selected MBRs is observing: cryospheric indicators, such as snow cover, glaciers, permafrost and solifluction (where freezing and thawing of the ground results in soil-surface slippage); high-mountain, freshwater ecosystems and watershed hydrology; and terrestrial ecosystems, especially mountain plant life and certain soil-dwelling animals.
The choice of monitoring sites was not a random one. It includes countries with different socio-economic backgrounds and cultures. The studies taking place at these locations need to integrate natural and societal factors, and therefore various scientific disciplines. “Through monitoring, one can design a scheme to target indicators that are driven by human action, and MBR managers can set threshold values (e.g. for sustainability) which can be met by management,” suggests Glochamore in its Vienna report.
But a fully integrated study of the so-called ‘nature-society system’ entails finding common denominators and even coining a new language which practitioners of both the natural and social sciences can understand, the report concludes.
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Source:
EU
Contact:
Research Contacts page
More information:
Glochamore project (on UNESCO’s MAB site)UNESCOMountain Research InitiativeGlobal Observation Research Initiatives in Alpine Environments (Gloria)International Symposium on Cryospheric Indicators of Global Climate Change (event, 21-25 August 2006)
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