Guest Blog

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In the field with GEO Mountains: A Reflective Journey Across the Caucasus, Central Asian, East Africa, Himalayas, and Andes Mountains

During GEO Mountains Regional Workshop Series (2023–2024), we were fortunate to be able to spend some time in the very mountain regions we have been working to support for the last four years under the Adaptation at Altitude Programme. In this post, we provide a few reflections on our experiences.

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Enhancing Climate Action in Central and South America: The Role of Social Diversity in IPCC Outreach

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports play a pivotal role in shaping global climate policies. However, the effectiveness of its outreach efforts in Central and South America remains a critical question. In this context, I believe that including the rich social diversity in IPCC outreach for Central and South America is essential for meaningful climate change communication and action.

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Tackling Water Stress in the Swiss Alps

The Alps are being increasingly affected by floods and droughts. According to Manuela Brunner, we can do something about this problem: use water more sparingly and think about hazard protection in broader terms. Switzerland is known as Europe’s water reservoir – a reliable supplier of fresh water that flows steadily from Alpine sources, even when it is scarce elsewhere. This image is now being severely threatened by climate change. Extreme events such as floods and droughts are becoming more frequent, thereby exacerbating water stress. The last few years have illustrated impressively how rarely hydrological conditions have been just right or normal. On the contrary, we have had to struggle with either too little water as a result of too little snow in winter and too little rain in summer, or with too much water in the form of heavy precipitation and floods. Winters With Little Snow Favor Dry Summers Droughts and...
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Bridging Past and Present: Reviving Humboldt's Approach to Mountain Research in the Face of Climate Change

The idea for Climate Change on Mountains: Reviving Humboldt’s Approach to Science started forming in my mind in 2015, halfway through co-writing the textbook Ecology of High-altitude Waters with my friend Dean Jacobsen. While I was well versed in the dry style of scientific papers, the textbook allowed me a creative freedom that stimulated my desire to write about scientific practices, discoveries, and beyond. A crossover book with a wider audience in mind seemed an appealing next step. Navigating the Impacts of Climate Change And so I started working on a book about the ecological effects of climate change in the tropical Andes—my scientific focus over the last decade—that would blend compelling scientific findings with personal memoirs. My objective was to share my first-hand experience with the accelerating impacts of climate change in tropical mountains, the effects caused by rising temperatures, melting glaciers, and changing precipitation patterns. In the field, I...
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Organizing a Workshop as an Early Career Scientist: Lessons Learned from “Cryosphere-Groundwater Interactions: a Missing Link in Mountain Water Research”

This MRI-funded synthesis workshop, held in April, shed light on the flowpaths of glacier meltwater, revealing potential impacts on downstream water supplies, a critical knowledge gap on the water science agenda. This blog post aims to provide insights into the process of organising this kind of workshop from the perspective of an Early Career Scientist (ECS).

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Kenya Drought: Pastoralists Suffer Despite Millions Of Dollars Used To Protect Them – What Went Wrong?

Across the arid landscape of northern Kenya, roadside signs proclaim projects aimed at creating “resilience” among pastoralist communities. This is a region where frequent droughts, animal disease, insecurity and structural exclusion all affect pastoral livelihoods. Resilience – the capacity to transform or to recover quickly from challenges – is the idea behind the many externally funded projects and hundreds of millions of dollars spent over the past few decades. Resilience projects across the drylands often encourage pastoralists – usually working together in groups – to “modernise” their production or get out of livestock keeping completely. Projects include livestock breed improvement, reseeding pastures, creating fodder banks, upgrading market facilities or offering livestock insurance. Such projects are combined with investments in water resources and roads, as well as an array of “alternative livelihoods” projects. The value of this approach is under scrutiny amid one of the most severe droughts of the past century...
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The Changing Life of Transhumant Pastoralists in Central and Northern Chile

In Chile, a country more than 4,000 km long, few things are constant. Its people, climate, and landscape present an ever-changing array of differences. But there is one thing that you can find everywhere you look: the Andes. This massive mountain range crosses our country and, to some extent, determines all kinds of activities that will take part in our beloved strip of land. One of these activities, perhaps the oldest, is transhumant pastoralism. Contemporary transhumance in the central and northern Andes of Chile starts with pre-Hispanic transhumant practices, carried out with camelid livestock by the Aymara, Colla and Atacameña people, inheritors of the nomadic past of the first human settlements that followed the migratory routes of wild camelids, including guanacos and vicuñas. The knowledge of routes and plants of these cultures was, for lack of a better word, adopted by the Spanish conquistadores, who also had a long tradition of...
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Understanding Socio-Economic Transitions in the Mountains

Understanding the complex changes in mountainous regions is challenging compared to the lowland areas. Human interventions in mountains have been reductionist, hindering progress in analysing their identity and impacts. This article identifies characteristics of the mountains to help understand and make necessary positive changes. A more interdisciplinary approach can lead to a holistic framework for designing sustainable transformations that ensure well-being for people and the environment.

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Making Mountain Research Common: Harnessing the Power of Communication

Reflections, Tips, and Returning to “Why”

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A First Look at Canada’s Mountain Research – Building a Roadmap for the Future

The Canadian Mountain Assessment (CMA) provides a first-of-its-kind look at what we know, do not know, and need to know about mountain systems in Canada.

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One Protocol to Track Them All

This blog post written by Jonas Lembrechts, postdoctoral researcher at the Centre of Excellence on Plants and Ecosystems at the University of Antwerp, presents a standardized protocol developed by the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN). The protocol was designed to systematically quantify global patterns of native and non-native species distributions along elevation gradients and shifts in these distributions arising from interactive effects of climate change and human disturbance.

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In Full Transition: Addressing the Challenges of Our Changing Mountains

Syphoning for lake level lowering and flood protection at Laguna Palcacocha, Cordillera Blanca, Peru. Rock and ice avalanches from the surrounding icy peaks can directly impact the lake. (Picture source: H. Frey, April 2015)

The Mountain Research Initiative was established 20 years ago, and no doubt there are important challenges ahead that extend far beyond another 20 years of this organisation. Even at the highest (altitudinal) levels…

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The End of Glacier Guides in New Zealand?

Retreating ice endangers their safety … and their livelihoods.

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Fragile Mountain Systems? On the Evolution of Scientific Insights

In this blog post written for the Network for European Mountain Research (NEMOR), Harald Bugmann, Professor of Forest Ecology at ETH Zurich and our very first Chair here at the MRI, reflects on the fragility of mountain forests and their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.

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Tackling “the Ultimate Challenge” in Greater Depth

I am delighted to join the MRI as a Scientific Project Officer and, as part of GEO Mountains, look forward to working in an interdisciplinary and collaborative fashion to improve the availability and accessibility of data pertaining to the earth’s mountainous regions. Below, by way of self-introduction, I take the opportunity to say a few words regarding my recent doctoral research.  

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COVID-19 in Glacier Regions Update: Latin America Responds, Italy Uses Drones to Enforce Quarantine, and the US Copes

A village below the Peruvian Cordillera Blanca

 

For the past two weeks GlacierHub has made space in the usual Monday news roundup for coverage of the coronavirus pandemic as it impacts glacier regions. In continuing that reporting, the following is an aggregation of coronavirus news stories from global glacier regions, written by guest author Peter Deneen.

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Acodado Glacier, Chile Retreat Yields Tripling in Lake Area 1987 - 2020

Loriaux and Casassa (2013) examined the expansion of lakes of the Northern Patagonia Ice Cap (NPI). From 1945 to 2011 lake area expanded 65%, 66 km2. Rio Acodado has two large glacier termini at its headwater, HPN2 and HPN3. that are fed by the same accumulation zone and comprise the Acodado Glacier. The glacier separates from Steffen Glacier at 900 m. The lakes at the terminus of each were first observed in 1976 and had an area of 2.4 and 5.0 km2 in 2011 (Loriaux and Casassa, 2013).  Willis et al (2012) noted a 3.5 m thinning per year from 2001-2011 in the ablation zone of the Acodado Glacier, they also note annual velocity is less than 300 m/year in the ablation zone. Davies and Glasser (2012) noted that the Acodado Glacier termini, HPN2 and HPN3, had retreated at a steadily increasing rate from 1870 to 2011. Here we examine the substantial changes in Acodado Glacier from 1987...
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A Reservoir of Difficulties for Hydropower

Grande Dixence Dam

Hydropower will have to undergo big changes if it’s to meet the demands of the Energy Strategy 2050. But this old source of renewable energy is faced with problems today. We look at the recommendations made by the National Research Programme.

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From ‘Whom’ or ‘What’ do Protected Areas Shield the Environment? A Case Study from Mountainous Georgia

The expansion of protected areas has significant implications for local communities and economies. How can community involvement in this process build trust and help ensure sustainable socioeconomic development, and what are the challenges that such an expansion can generate? A new research project sets out to explore this topic in the context of the expansion of Georgia's Kazbegi National Park. Mountain and Rural Development Initiatives – Caucasus Region (MRD-Cau), based at Tbilisi State University, is a collaborative effort between several local and international scholars with the shared vision of pursuing solutions to pressing challenges in rural and mountainous Caucasus. This platform initiates research projects focused on tackling issues related to the transformation of socioeconomic and spatial conditions, mostly centered around tourism development, management of protected areas, territorial patterns of local economic activities, etc. Importantly, most of the projects are based on interdisciplinary approaches that aim to bolster sustainable and inclusive development....
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Workshop on Sustainable Water Resources Management in High Mountains in the Baltic Sea Region

The 2nd International Hydrological Workshop on Sustainable Water Resources Management in High Mountains in the Baltic Sea Region was held in Zakopane in the Polish Tatra Mountains from 10-13 June 2019. 

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Peru’s Ancient Water Systems Can Help Protect Communities from Shortages Caused by Climate Change

Water is essential for human life, but in many parts of the world water supplies are under threat from more extreme, less predictable weather conditions due to climate change. Nowhere is this clearer than in the Peruvian Andes, where rising temperatures and receding glaciers forewarn of imminent water scarcity for the communities that live there.

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Defending the Environment Now More Lethal Than Soldiering in Some War Zones – And Indigenous Peoples Are Suffering Most

Despite centuries of persecution, indigenous groups still manage or have tenure rights over at least a quarter of the world’s land surface. Often inhabiting these lands as far back as memory extends, they share a deep and unique connection to their environment.

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Lagging Behind

Species have been reported to be moving poleward and upward in mountains as a result of climate change. Evidence of this movement is piling up rapidly, and with every passing year the increasing speed at which it is occurring is also becoming apparent. However, new studies reveal that this species movement is often not as straightforward as it first appears.[caption id="attachment_3155" align="alignright" width="300"] Plants and other sessile organism often show a delayed response to climate change. (Northern Scandes, Norway)One might think that as the climate warms, so species will follow. The problem is, a species’ reaction to a change in their environment is not always that fast. They often need some time to adjust and to move towards where the climate is now suitable. This delayed reaction is especially true for sessile species, like plants, that depend almost entirely on seed transportation to travel around.Toward greater understandingThese so-called lags in species...
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Human Needs & Wildlife Management: Pathways 2017

The 2017 Pathways Conference took place 17-20 September in the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, USA. Pathways to Success: Integrating Human Dimensions into Fish and Wildlife Management was an international gathering of over 270 scientists, NGOs, and government agencies from 20 countries. Its theme was FUTURES, addressing the myriad of issues that arise as people and wildlife struggle to coexist in a sustainable and healthy manner. Pathways 2017 was hosted by Colorado State University in partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service.Keynote speakers included Dan Ashe (President and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums), Joel Berger (Director of a number of projects for the Wildlife Conservation Society, or WCS) and Laurie Marker (Founder and Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund). In his speech, Dan Ashe called for a more integrated approach to conservation. Such an approach recognizes the human dimensions of fish and wildlife management as...
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LuMont – The Lusophony mountain research network meeting: a common research agenda for mountain areas in Portuguese speaking countries

LuMont, the Lusophony Mountain Research Network, met physically for the first time on October 7, 2016, in Bragança, Portugal. This was a very expected meeting since LuMont was until this date mostly a virtual network with general goals and objectives set by CIMO, the Mountain Research Centre at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, who lead the process. The Lusophony Mountain Research Network had as goals the promotion of information flow among researchers and research institutions dedicated to mountains, and the creation of more and better opportunities for research partnerships, projects, grants, educational programmes, and other initiatives. Apparently modest, this is not an easy goal to achieve due to the spread of the researchers in the network over a number of countries in several continents and the diverse economic and development contexts where research takes place.[caption id="attachment_2461" align="alignleft" width="300"] Participants at the LuMont meeting in Bragança, Portugal, October 7 2016.LuMont was launched in...
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