Global News
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An unprecedented abundance of oceanic life played a crucial role in the creation of Earth's mountains, a landmark study led by scientists at the University of Aberdeen has revealed.
While the formation of mountains is usually associated with the collision of tectonic plates causing huge slabs of rock to be thrust skywards, the study has shown that this was triggered by an abundance of nutrients in the oceans 2 billion years ago which caused an explosion in planktonic life.
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Retreating glaciers in the Pacific mountains of western North America could produce around 6,150 kilometers of new Pacific salmon habitat by the year 2100, according to a new study.
Scientists have ‘peeled back the ice’ from 46,000 glaciers between southern British Columbia and south-central Alaska to look at how much potential salmon habitat would be created when underlying bedrock is exposed and new streams flow over the landscape.
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Mountain areas are particularly affected by global warming, but how it impacts snow avalanches remains poorly known. Researchers from INRAE, Météo France, the CNRS* and the Universities of Grenoble Alpes, Genève and Haute-Alsace have together evaluated changes in avalanche activity over nearly two-and-a-half centuries in the Vosges Mountains, combining historical analysis with statistical modelling and climate research.
Their results, published on 25 October in PNAS, show that avalanches now occur at higher altitudes than previously, with avalanche prone areas now restricted to the range’s highest elevations. This upslope migration has resulted in a sevenfold reduction of the number of avalanches, a shortening of the avalanche season, and a shrinkage in their size by comparison with the last phase of the Little Ice Age. The results also show that low to medium elevation mountain ranges such as the Vosges Mountains may serve as sentinels for the impacts of climate warming.
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Volume 18, issue 11 of the Journal of Mountain Science explores topics ranging from a multi-scale analysis of ecosystem services trade-offs in an ecotone in the Eastern Margin of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to an examination of 30 years of the transformation of non-urban public transport in Poland’s peripheral areas.
Other articles look at the spatial differentiation pattern of interregional migration in ethnic minority areas of Yunnan Province in China, assess the vegetation community distribution characteristics and succession stages in mountainous areas hosting the coming Winter Olympics, and quantify glacial elevation changes in the central Qilian Mountains during the early 21st century, among many other topics.
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With mountain snowpacks shrinking in the western U.S., a new Berkeley Lab study analyzes when a low-to-no-snow future might arrive and the implications for water management.
Mountain snowpacks around the world are on the decline, and if the planet continues to warm, climate models forecast that snowpacks could shrink dramatically and possibly even disappear altogether on certain mountains, including in the western United States, at some point in the next century. A new study led by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) analyzes the likely timing of a low-to-no-snow future, what it will mean for water management, and opportunities for investments now that could stave off catastrophic consequences.
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IPBES have announced the start of the external review of the draft scoping report for the IPBES business and biodiversity assessment, which is open from 2 November to 13 December 2021.
The rolling work programme of IPBES up to 2030, adopted by the Plenary in decision IPBES-7/1, includes a methodological assessment of the impact and dependence of business on biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people ('business and biodiversity assessment'). In the same decision, the Plenary approved a scoping process for the assessment, based on the initial scoping report set out in appendix II to document IPBES/7/6, for consideration by the Plenary at IPBES 9 (July 2022).
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A historic World Meteorological Congress has concluded with landmark resolutions to prioritize water and to dramatically strengthen the world’s weather and climate services through a systematic increase in exchange of observational data and data products.
The WMO Unified Data Policy, the Global Basic Observing Network, and the Systematic Observations Financing Facility were painstakingly developed through extensive consultation with thousands of experts and other stakeholders around the globe. The aim is to meet the explosive growth in demand for weather and climate data products and services, to fill gaps in the global observing system and ensure more sustainable financing.
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What constitutes quality of life? What does a rural, mountain area like the Entlebuch offer in terms of quality of life today and in the future? How can quality of life be provided sustainably? These and similar questions were addressed in a research project conducted by the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) at the University of Bern, and are now shown in an interactive exhibition at the UNESCO Biosphere Entlebuch. The exhibition was designed participatively, and offers the opportunity for the visitor to reflect on their own quality of life and to mirror their findings with scientific results. It is, in the view of the authors, an important topic with regional up to global relevance.
How satisfied are the people of Entlebuch and of comparable regions with their lives, and how sustainable is the provision of this quality of life? These basic questions were the impetus for a research project that the CDE launched together with the UNESCO Biosphere Entlebuch and other partners in 2017. The research project investigated these questions with qualitative and quantitative approaches and identified 'sustainable quality of life' as a multi-layered concept that takes into account nine aspects that add up to quality of life: Social relations and equality, nature and landscape, employment and income, participation and belonging, housing, mobility, health and safety, education and knowledge. These aspects are evaluated in terms of their social, economic, and environmental impact. Further, sustainable quality of life puts emphasis on inter- and intra-generational equity.
