Global Change and Mountain Regions: An Overview of Current Knowledge, edited by Uli M. Huber, Harald K.M. Bugmann, and Mel A. Reasoner. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2005. vii + 650 pp. €150.00, US$199.00. ISBN 1-4020-3507-1.
The challenge of global climate change is engaging scientists across a wide range of disciplines and has become an important issue for politicians and environmental agencies around the world. Modeling scenarios predict not only a range of temperature increases, but also critical changes in precipitation, over the next century. Regional variations in these climatic parameters will be of great significance, particularly in the mountains, which are well known to be sensitive, fragile environments. The impact of these climatic changes will be compounded by population growth, both within and beyond the mountains, leading to increased demand for basic resources, especially land and water.
External system changes, associated with tectonic and climatic events, are rapidly felt in the mountains where thresholds allow rapid reactions, generating responses from geomorphological and ecological systems which can have direct impacts on mountain livelihoods. In mountains, such physical changes are often catastrophic, as the equilibrium conditions between different parts of the system trigger positive feedback loops creating further instability. However, such conditions must be regarded as a normal part of mountain dynamics, reflecting how interactions of climatic and tectonic processes in areas with high relief and available energy promote geomorphic and ecological changes. It is the question how the operation of this system will be affected by climate change that is a current challenge to science.
The International Year of Mountains (IYM) in 2002 did an outstanding job of increasing public awareness of mountains across a range of issues, from the dependence of over half of the world's population on mountain water resources to future sustainability of mountain environments and indigenous peoples. This has been developed in the introductory paper of this book, which sets the scene by reporting on key issues in mountain research developed within the IYM framework and how this has successfully driven subsequent multidisciplinary research. Much of this was motivated by a demand for data on mountain environments by policy-makers. This has led to the establishment of global interdisciplinary structures which have strengthened partnership opportunities, as exemplified by the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), organized around 4 core activities (Becker and Bugmann 2001):
Long-term monitoring and analysis of environmental change
Integrated model-based studies in different mountain regions
Process studies along altitudinal gradients and catchments
Sustainable land use and natural resource management
All of these are key components in this book, which provides an excellent synthesis of major issues associated with environmental change in mountains. It is one of the first major outputs associated with the MRI and the GLOCHAMORE (GLObal CHAnge in MOuntain REgions) project funded by the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme (Price 2006). It forms volume 23 of Springer's series on Advances in Global Change Research, and includes 63 papers stretching over 650 pages. The large number of papers precludes detailed description, and this review will therefore only briefly mention specific sections. The book is divided into 5 sections exploring key themes and developing MRI core activities: palaeoenvironmental changes (15 papers), cryospheric changes (9 papers), hydrological changes (10 papers), ecological changes (15 papers), and human dimensions (12 papers). The papers in each section are summarized at its beginning. Some papers are devoted to synthesis of specific issues, whilst others report developments in specific areas, particularly with new data from high-resolution records or increased monitoring of current processes. The final paper by the editors and eminent colleagues is an excellent synthesis of this great amount of information and identifies future research directions. For readers in a hurry, I recommend going straight to this paper which summarizes the main themes in more detail than this review.
It is reassuring to find that many of the general points and issues that I have identified are picked up in this final paper—for example, the need for integrated science and social science projects that involve stakeholders and policy-makers, and the importance of mountain regions and highland–lowland interactions in providing resources and services. The increasing threats to mountain systems from both natural drivers of change and globalization mean that the future will be a challenge—hence the importance of proxy records of past environmental change to allow an assessment of present trends and development of scenarios for the future. Changes to the cryosphere illustrate the future as one where glaciers will disappear from many mountain areas within the next few decades (Thompson et al 2006). Models are important in establishing where temperature change is going to be maximized; but so too is an increase in monitoring networks to assess the complex responses to this change.
The role of mountains as “water towers” is expanded, given that water stress is going to increase considerably as climate change impacts particularly arid and semi-arid areas where most water comes from the relatively more humid mountains (Viviroli et al 2003). The impact on ecosystems will be direct—not only as species move “upwards and pole-wards,” but also through an overall decline in landscape stability. The papers in this book clearly show the complexity of dealing with ecosystems over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales; this can be solved by a “landscape-ecological view of entire mountain ranges” rather than numerous small-scale studies. Integration of biodiversity and land use is important, bringing in the human dimension. This firmly directs attention to the 720 million people who inhabit mountain regions and will be exposed to increased risk and vulnerability resulting from global change, particularly with respect to agriculture, since many are subsistence farmers.
This book is an essential collection of papers on important mountain-directed themes. Climate change has started—it is not a possibility, but reality. Mountains, because of their sensitivity to forcing mechanisms and vertical range, will be among the first environments to react to this change, whether relating to glacier disappearance or to plant migration. As this book clearly demonstrates, the challenge to understand this will require scientific cooperation not only between different disciplines but also involving technology and social science. Global initiatives, such as the MRI, have a central role to play in directing research programs that will inform policy-makers about global change that will impact the entire Earth. The editors and contributors are to be congratulated on the production of this timely book which will be a key text in tackling the challenges posed by climate change.
