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Scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains
Mountains are highly diverse in areal extent, geological and climatic context, ecosystems and human activity. As such, mountain environments worldwide are particularly sensitive to the effects of anthropogenic climate change (global warming) as a result of their unique heat balance properties and th...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2022
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9610668/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36312749 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14253 |
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author | Knight, Jasper |
author_facet | Knight, Jasper |
author_sort | Knight, Jasper |
collection | PubMed |
description | Mountains are highly diverse in areal extent, geological and climatic context, ecosystems and human activity. As such, mountain environments worldwide are particularly sensitive to the effects of anthropogenic climate change (global warming) as a result of their unique heat balance properties and the presence of climatically-sensitive snow, ice, permafrost and ecosystems. Consequently, mountain systems—in particular cryospheric ones—are currently undergoing unprecedented changes in the Anthropocene. This study identifies and discusses four of the major properties of mountains upon which anthropogenic climate change can impact, and indeed is already doing so. These properties are: the changing mountain cryosphere of glaciers and permafrost; mountain hazards and risk; mountain ecosystems and their services; and mountain communities and infrastructure. It is notable that changes in these different mountain properties do not follow a predictable trajectory of evolution in response to anthropogenic climate change. This demonstrates that different elements of mountain systems exhibit different sensitivities to forcing. The interconnections between these different properties highlight that mountains should be considered as integrated biophysical systems, of which human activity is part. Interrelationships between these mountain properties are discussed through a model of mountain socio-biophysical systems, which provides a framework for examining climate impacts and vulnerabilities. Managing the risks associated with ongoing climate change in mountains requires an integrated approach to climate change impacts monitoring and management. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9610668 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-96106682022-10-28 Scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains Knight, Jasper PeerJ Ecology Mountains are highly diverse in areal extent, geological and climatic context, ecosystems and human activity. As such, mountain environments worldwide are particularly sensitive to the effects of anthropogenic climate change (global warming) as a result of their unique heat balance properties and the presence of climatically-sensitive snow, ice, permafrost and ecosystems. Consequently, mountain systems—in particular cryospheric ones—are currently undergoing unprecedented changes in the Anthropocene. This study identifies and discusses four of the major properties of mountains upon which anthropogenic climate change can impact, and indeed is already doing so. These properties are: the changing mountain cryosphere of glaciers and permafrost; mountain hazards and risk; mountain ecosystems and their services; and mountain communities and infrastructure. It is notable that changes in these different mountain properties do not follow a predictable trajectory of evolution in response to anthropogenic climate change. This demonstrates that different elements of mountain systems exhibit different sensitivities to forcing. The interconnections between these different properties highlight that mountains should be considered as integrated biophysical systems, of which human activity is part. Interrelationships between these mountain properties are discussed through a model of mountain socio-biophysical systems, which provides a framework for examining climate impacts and vulnerabilities. Managing the risks associated with ongoing climate change in mountains requires an integrated approach to climate change impacts monitoring and management. PeerJ Inc. 2022-10-24 /pmc/articles/PMC9610668/ /pubmed/36312749 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14253 Text en © 2022 Knight https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
spellingShingle | Ecology Knight, Jasper Scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains |
title | Scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains |
title_full | Scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains |
title_fullStr | Scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains |
title_full_unstemmed | Scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains |
title_short | Scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains |
title_sort | scientists’ warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains |
topic | Ecology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9610668/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36312749 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14253 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT knightjasper scientistswarningoftheimpactsofclimatechangeonmountains |