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While there is no doubt regarding the highly erosive nature of glaciers and their ability to shape the Earth’s surface, establishing precise data-based parameters to measure this erosion in landscape evolution models has proved challenging.
According to University of Dundee Geoscientist Simon Cook, the empirical basis for the current model for measuring the rate of glacial erosion (as a function of glacier sliding velocity) is weak, and the assumption that climate controls erosion via sliding velocity also merits further empirical scrutiny.
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The western Peruvian Coastal Range depends on ecosystem services from several mountain catchments, including the Cañete River which provides water for energy, agriculture and housing from both the El Platanal hydroelectric plant and the Capillucas reservoir.
While it is known that changing precipitation patterns, including more heavy rainfall, due to climate change may increase the concentration of silt in storage reservoirs like the Capillucas reservoir, potentially endangering the livelihood of the surrounding community, the extent of the damage is not yet known.
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As climate change redefines the landscape of high mountain environments, so changes the scope – and its limitations – of summertime mountaineering in the Alps.
While sunnier weather and warmer temperatures lead to a rise in certain nature-based tourism, such as visiting natural parks and camping, they are causing the crysophere to melt, leading to more frequent and intense gravitational processes (such as rockfall), creating an increasingly dangerous setting for mountaineers.
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Identifying and conserving ecosystems in protected area networks are top priorities for the conservation science community. The macroscale global ecoregions maps commonly in use today describe large ecologically meaningful areas, but not distinct localized ecosystems at the occurrence (patch) level, potentially leaving ecosystems at risk of being left out of conservation efforts.
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Climate change poses a major threat to the survival of alpine mammals living in fragmented habitats with poor dispersal abilities. Among these important prey species, pikas are considered especially vulnerable to rising temperatures that would impede their surface activity and dispersal.
This article investigates how climatic regimes influence the niche of the Royle’s pika (Ochotona roylei), and which climatic drivers and change trajectories may threaten the species’ future sustenance, thereby prioritizing areas for future conservation of this species across its distribution range.
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This review presents research evidence of climate change and anthropogenic impacts on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro and its implications on water, food and energy production (WFE nexus).
While there exist divided scholarly opinions on the impacts of climate change on the Mt. Kilimanjaro glacier, consistent decreases in precipitation amounts are evident throughout the existing literature.
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Andean forests decreased in area over the past decade, and communities throughout the Andes are experiencing environmental degradation and soil fertility loss. But amid deforestation, forests returned to some Andean regions, producing local ‘forest transitions’, or net increases in forest cover.
The mechanisms that drive these local transitions – often in part the actions of residents – are still little studied, but hold key information for creating successful forest and landscape restoration interventions.
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A new report into the impacts of climate change on the Earth's cryosphere combines the findings of the two recent IPCC Special Reports with other studies published since. The report's conclusion? Failure to choose policies now that keep global warming below 1.5°C will result in a cascading series of disasters.
Cryosphere1.5°, Where Urgency and Ambition Meet is a report published by the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, authored and reviewed by over 40 IPCC and other cryosphere scientists. It was launched at the COP25 in Madrid on 12 December 2019, and combines the findings of the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 ºC and the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC), plus studies that have been published since.
