Mountain Environments In Changing Climates

Home to large numbers of people, sources of water, centres of tourism, and sensitive ecological zones, mountain environments share distinctive climactic characteristics. Once regarded as economically non-viable regions, mountains now attract major investment as sites of tourism, hydro-power and communication routes. This book brings together some of the current work on the physical and human ecology of mountain environments, the impacts of climate change, the processes involved and their observation and prediction.

Mountain environments are often perceived to be austere, isolated, and inhospitable. In fact, these areas are of immense value to mankind, providing direct life support to close to 10 percent of the world's population and sustaining a wide variety of species - many of which are endemic to this environment. 'Environmental Change in Mountains and Uplands' provides detailed account of the fragile and marginal physical and socio-economic systems which make up the world's mountain regions. Discussing the direct and indirect impacts of human interference on environmental ecosystems, it then turns to the social and economic consequences of such environmental change - both upon the mountain environment itself and upon the populations who depend on mountain resources for their economic sustenance. This book includes a review of possible implications for adaption and mitigation strategies in a global context. Working within a broad temporal scale, it draws upon paleoenvironmental records to document past changes which have occured in the absence of major anthropogenic influences, as well as utilising modelling as a means to assessing future environmental change.

This book compiles available knowledge of the response of mountain ecosystems to recent climate and land use change and intends to bridge the gap between science, policy and the community concerned. The chapters present key concepts, major drivers and key processes of mountain response, providing transdisciplinary orientation to mountain studies incorporating experiences of academics, community leaders and policy-makers from developed and less developed countries. The book chapters are arranged in two sections. The first section concerns the response processes of mountain environments to climate change. This section addresses climate change itself (past, current and future changes of temperature and precipitation) and its impacts on the cryosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and human-environment systems. The second section focuses on the response processes of mountain environments to land use/land cover change. The case studies address effects of changing agriculture and pastoralism, forest/water resources management and urbanization processes, landscape management, and biodiversity conservation. The book is designed as an interdisciplinary publication which critically evaluates developments in mountains of the world with contributions from both social and natural sciences.

This book breaks the ground in Geographical texts by transcending a strictly regional or topical focus. It presents the opportunities and constraints that mountains and their resources offer to local and global populations; the impacts of environmental and economic change, development and globalisation on mountain environments. Part of the Ecogeography series edited by Richard Hugget

Earth is constantly changing. However, over the last several decades, human activity has accelerated these changes around the world. Mountains, for example, may seem permanent and unchanging, but they are just as fragile as Earth's other environments. Written according to state and national STEM standards, this book explores the impact that humans have on mountain environments, from the creation of roads and ski slopes to the use of explosives to create mines. Age-appropriate text is supported by full-color photographs, fact boxes, and sidebars.

Home to large numbers of people, sources of water, centres of tourism, and sensitive ecological zones, mountain environments share distinctive climactic characteristics. Once regarded as economically non-viable regions, mountains now attract major investment as sites of tourism, hydro-power and communication routes. This book brings together some of the current work on the physical and human ecology of mountain environments, the impacts of climate change, the processes involved and their observation and prediction.

This book is written for general readers with an interest in science, and offers the tools and ideas for understanding how climate change will affect mountains of the American West. A major goal of the book is to provide material that will not become quickly outdated, and it does so by conveying its topics through constants in ecological science that will remain unchanged and scientifically sound. The book is timely in its potential to be a long-term contribution, and is designed to inform the public about climate change in mountains accessibly and intelligibly. The major themes of the book include: 1) mountains of the American West as natural experiments that can distinguish the effects of climate change because they have been relatively free from human-caused changes, 2) mountains as regions with unique sensitivities that may change more rapidly than the Earth as a whole and foreshadow the nature and magnitude of change elsewhere, and 3) different interacting components of ecosystems in the face of a changing climate, including forest growth and mortality, ecological disturbance, and mountain hydrology. Readers will learn how these changes and interactions in mountains illuminate the complexity of ecological changes in other contexts around the world.