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A new study on how the palaeoecological and archaeological syntheses covers past years of entangled environmental and human histories of Africa’s mountains that can be used to define the varied social-ecological dynamics and legacies of this biocultural heritage (Marchant et al., 2018). MRI Science Leadership Council member, Robert Marchant, is among the authors of this publication. 

As the world contends with raging wildfires, floods, droughts and record-breaking temperatures, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) initiated its seventh assessment cycle by electing the leaders who will guide the Panel’s work in providing timely information to support policymakers as they confront a rapidly changing environment.

The new Working Group on Droughts in Mountain Regions within the new scientific decade HELPING, by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences, is seeking survey contributions and links with the MRI research community. They aim to provide inclusive opportunities for communities living in mountains to co-analyse emerging drought hazards, co-determine sources of vulnerability and resilience, co-quantify emerging risks, and co-design solutions for droughts in mountain regions.

A world-first study has found concentrations of plastics in some lakes are higher than in the most contaminated parts of oceans, demonstrating the extent to which plastics have invaded Earth’s ecosystems. Researchers sampled 38 lakes and reservoirs around the world, including in Australia, the United States, United Kingdom and Europe. Plastics and microplastics were found at every site, including very remote locations. 

In a new study citing the latest work published by the MRI Elevation Dependent Climate Change Working Group (Pepin et al., 2022), researchers reveal that as the climate warms, the intensification of rainfall extremes in high-elevation regions is amplified by approximately 15% per degree Celsius of warming, twice the previously reported rate, due to increased atmospheric water vapor and a shift towards more rain and less snow.

Volume 20, issue number 6 of the Journal of Mountain Science is now available online.

The Joint Body on Mountain Snow Cover is a collaboration between the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS), the Mountain Research Initiative, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW). The Joint Body was launched in 2022 and will run until 2025.

A major new assessment report from eight-nation body, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), reveals the changes to the glaciers, snow and permafrost of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region driven by global warming are “unprecedented and largely irreversible.”

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