Warming-driven erosion and sediment transport in cold regions

We synthesized a global inventory of cryosphere degradation-driven increases in erosion and sediment yield, e.g., suspended load, bedload, particulate organic carbon, and riverbank/slope erosion. This inventory includes 76 locations from the high Arctic, European mountains, High Mountain Asia and Andes, and 18 Arctic permafrost-coastal sites, and they were collected from ~80 studies

Tors in Central European Mountains – are they indicators of past environments?

Tors represent one of the most characteristic landforms in the uplands and mountains of Central Europe, including the Sudetes, Czech-Moravian Highlands, Šumava/Bayerischer Wald, Fichtelgebirge or Harz. These features occur in a range of lithologies, although granites and gneisses are particularly prone to tor formation. Various models of tor formation and development have been presented, and for each model the tors were thought to have evolved under specific environmental conditions. The two most common theories emphasised their progressive emergence from pre-Quaternary weathering mantles in a two-stage scenario, and their development across slopes under periglacial conditions in a one-stage scenario. More recently, tors have been analysed in relation to ice sheet extent, the selectivity of glacial erosion, and the preservation of landforms under ice. In this paper we describe tor distribution across Central Europe along with hypotheses relating to their formation and development, arguing that specific evolutionary histories are not supported by unequivocal evidence and that the scenarios presented were invariably model-driven. Several examples from the Sudetes are presented to demonstrate that tor morphology is strongly controlled by lithology and structure. The juxtaposition of tors of different types is not necessarily evidence that they differ in their mode of origin or age. Pathways of tor remodelling and degradation under subaerial conditions are identified and it is argued that processes of tor formation and development are ongoing. Thus, tors are not reliable indicators of past environments, because they are considerably influenced by both geological factors, such as lithology and structure, and geomorphological factors such as hillslope setting

Targeting best agricultural practices to enhance ecosystem services in European mountains

Agri-environmental policies in Europe are failing to sufficiently address ongoing environmental degradation, biodiversity decline, climate impacts, and societal demands for sustainability. To reverse this, policymakers, practitioners, and farmers need better guidance on which specific agricultural practice/s should be promoted and how to adapt current practices to reach the desired objectives. Here we use social valuation tools to elucidate the relationship between agricultural practices and the provision of key ecosystem services in mountains, including maintenance of scenery from agricultural landscapes, conservation of biodiversity, regulation of climate change through carbon sequestration, production of local quality products, maintenance of soil fertility, and prevention of forest wildfires. We use as case studies two contrasting but representative mountain agroecosystems in the Mediterranean and Nordic regions of Europe. We analyze the best agricultural practices in both agroecosystems to reach the targeted environmental outcomes under three plausible policy scenarios. We find significant differences in the average contribution of agricultural practices to ecosystem services provision, which suggest the need for regionalizing the research efforts and, consequently, the design of agri-environmental policies. However, we also identify practices for ecosystem service delivery across policy scenarios and agroecosystems. Among these, grazing and silviculture practices such as extending the grazing period, grazing in semi-natural habitats, grazing in remote and abandoned areas, adapting stocking rate to the carrying capacity, and moving flocks seasonally, stand out for their relevance in all policy scenarios. These results highlight the potential of adequate grazing and silviculture practices to deliver bundles of ecosystem services. Our study provides guidance to design agri-environmental policies in Europe that focus on rewarding farmers for their sustainable management of natural resources, climate change mitigation and adaption and biodiversity conservation

Mountain Tourism and Water and Snow Management in Climate Change Context

Mountain tourism is mainly based on two particular territorial resources: landscape (Reichler, 2002) and snow (Gumuchian, 1983). In the European mountains, after a phase of development of summer tourism since the end of the 18th century, winter sports appeared at the beginning of the 20th century in Saint-Moritz (Engadine, Switzerland), and then spread to almost all mountain ranges (Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, etc.), as early as the inter-war period and especially after the Second World War...

Modelling and simulating change in reforesting mountain landscapes using a social-ecological framework

Natural reforestation of European mountain landscapes raises major environmental and societal issues. With local stakeholders in the Pyrenees National Park area (France), we studied agricultural landscape colonisation by ash (Fraxinus excelsior) to enlighten its impacts on biodiversity and other landscape functions of importance for the valley socio-economics. The study comprised an integrated assessment of land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) since the 1950s, and a scenario analysis of alternative future policy. We combined knowledge and methods from landscape ecology, land change and agricultural sciences, and a set of coordinated field studies to capture interactions and feedback in the local landscape/land-use system. Our results elicited the hierarchically-nested relationships between social and ecological processes. Agricultural change played a preeminent role in the spatial and temporal patterns of LUCC. Landscape colonisation by ash at the parcel level of organisation was merely controlled by grassland management, and in fact depended on the farmer's land management at the whole-farm level. LUCC patterns at the landscape level depended to a great extent on interactions between farm household behaviours and the spatial arrangement of landholdings within the landscape mosaic. Our results stressed the need to represent the local SES function at a fine scale to adequately capture scenarios of change in landscape functions. These findings orientated our modelling choices in the building an agent-based model for LUCC simulation (SMASH - Spatialized Multi-Agent System of landscape colonization by ASH). We discuss our method and results with reference to topical issues in interdisciplinary research into the sustainability of multifunctional landscapes

Conservationist governmental technologies in the Western European mountains. The unfinished transformation of the Pyrenees

[eng] This paper, using the theoretical framework provided by political ecology, examines the impacts of state-making technologies in several areas of a first-world landscape in the Pyrenean mountain range. The Pyrenees are the mountainous range over which the contemporary border between France and Spain is located. Using regional examples, this paper discusses processes of governmental territorialization and shows how they relate to natural resources conceptualization and management with an emphasis on the political inequalities that act as a framework for these processes. We historicize the influences of public agencies on territory and natural resources, and discuss the ideological framework that sustains this, while also analyzing its social and political impacts on people and landscape.[spa] En este artículo examinamos, utilizando el marco teórico de la ecología política, los impactos de tecnologías estatales en diversas zonas de los Pirineos españoles. Describimos los procesos de territorialización gubernamental en un contexto no colonial, europeo, enfatizando su efecto en la conceptualización y la gestión de los recursos naturales. Las políticas de conservación son un tema de interés tradicional para la ecología política: en tanto que políticas públicas dedicadas a la gestión de los recursos naturales, se manifiestan como la materialización de la interacción entre política y ecología. El artículo tiene distintos objetivos analíticos: a) trasladar el énfasis del análisis de los procesos de territorialización desde una explicación basada en la tensión entre el primer y el tercer mundo, a otra que prioriza la tensa relación entre lo urbano y lo rural; b) señalar la resiliencia y la creatividad de las poblaciones locales frente a las disrupciones políticas masivas generadas por la implementación de políticas públicas; c) apuntar a la emergencia de las políticas europeas y las nuevas economías del ocio como elementos clave para la reconstrucción contemporánea de las montañas occidentales; y d) remarcar la naturaleza inacabada, o en flujo, del proceso descrito de negociación política de los derechos de acceso y control de los recursos naturales.[fra] Dans cet article, en utilisant un cadre de l'écologie politique, nous examinons les impacts des technologies de 'statemaking' dans le massif des Pyrénées, Espagne. Nous décrivons les processus de territorialisation gouvernementales dans un contexte européen, en soulignant leur effet sur la conceptualisation et la gestion des ressources naturelles. Les politiques de conservation sont un thème classique de l'écologie politique: les politiques publiques consacrées à la gestion des ressources naturelles, la politique de conservation incarnent l'interaction entre le politique et l'écologie. L'article a plusieurs objectifs d'analyse: a) de déplacer l'accent de l'analyse écologique politique vers l'impact de la relation conflictuelle entre les villes et les zones rurales en Europe. b) mettre en lumière la résilience et la créativité des populations locales face à la désorganisation politique massive par les politiques publiques. c) de signaler que les politiques européennes et les économies touristiques nouvelles sont des éléments clés de la reconstruction contemporaine de la chaîne des Pyrénées occidentales, et d) soulignent le caractère inachevé, ou le caractère continu, de la négociation politique des droits d'accès et de contrôle des des ressources naturelles

Identifying and prioritising services in European terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems

Ecosystems are multifunctional and provide humanity with a broad array of vital services. Effective management of services requires an improved evidence base, identifying the role of ecosystems in delivering multiple services, which can assist policy-makers in maintaining them. Here, information from the literature and scientific experts was used to systematically document the importance of services and identify trends in their use and status over time for the main terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems in Europe. The results from this review show that intensively managed ecosystems contribute mostly to vital provisioning services (e.g. agro-ecosystems provide food via crops and livestock, and forests provide wood), while semi-natural ecosystems (e.g. grasslands and mountains) are key contributors of genetic resources and cultural services (e.g. aesthetic values and sense of place). The most recent European trends in human use of services show increases in demand for crops from agro-ecosystems, timber from forests, water flow regulation from rivers, wetlands and mountains, and recreation and ecotourism in most ecosystems, but decreases in livestock production, freshwater capture fisheries, wild foods and virtually all services associated with ecosystems which have considerably decreased in area (e.g. semi-natural grasslands). The condition of the majority of services show either a degraded or mixed status across Europe with the exception of recent enhancements in timber production in forests and mountains, freshwater provision, water/erosion/natural hazard regulation and recreation/ecotourism in mountains, and climate regulation in forests. Key gaps in knowledge were evident for certain services across all ecosystems, including the provision of biochemicals and natural medicines, genetic resources and the regulating services of seed dispersal, pest/disease regulation and invasion resistance

A common soil temperature threshold for the upper limit of alpine grasslands in European mountains

Open Access funding provided by Université de Lausanne. Field inventories and temperature loggers were financially supported by 5th RTD Framework Programme of the European Union, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Département de la culture et des sports du Valais, Departamento de Medio Ambiente del Gobierno de Aragón, Foundation Dr. Joachim de Giacomi, Fondation Mariétan, Italian project of strategic interest NextData, MAVA Foundation, Frignano Regional Park (Modena), Norwegian Environment Agency, Ordesa & Monte Perdido National Park, Research Commission of the Swiss National Park, Scientific Grant Agency VEGA (project Nr. 2/0132/18), Scottish Natural Heritage, Sierra Nevada National Park, Société académique de Genève, Swiss Federal Office of Education and Science, Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, Tiroler Wissenschaftsfonds, Tuscan-Emilian Apennines National Park, and Wissenschaftsförderung der Südtiroler Landesregierung.We thank the numerous collaborators in each region who participated in field inventories, S. Jordan for his preliminary analyses, and A.-L. Aeby and F. Schütz for their assistance on statistical analyses. We are particularly grateful to C. Körner and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.While climatic research about treeline has a long history, the climatic conditions corresponding to the upper limit of closed alpine grasslands remain poorly understood. Here, we propose a climatic definition for this limit, the 'grassline', in analogy to the treeline, which is based on the growing season length and the soil temperature. Eighty-seven mountain summits across ten European mountain ranges, covering three biomes (boreal, temperate, Mediterranean), were inventoried as part of the GLORIA project. Vascular plant cover was estimated visually in 326 plots of 1 x 1 m. Soil temperatures were measured in situ for 2-7 years, from which the length of the growing season and mean temperature were derived. The climatic conditions corresponding to 40% plant cover were defined as the thresholds for alpine grassland. Closed vegetation was present in locations with a mean growing season soil temperature warmer than 4.9 degrees C, or a minimal growing season length of 85 days, with the growing season defined as encompassing days with daily mean >= 1 degrees C. Hence, the upper limit of closed grasslands was associated with a mean soil temperature close to that previously observed at the treeline, and in accordance with physiological thresholds to growth in vascular plants. In contrast to trees, whose canopy temperature is coupled with air temperature, small-stature alpine plants benefit from the soil warmed by solar radiation and consequently, they can grow at higher elevations. Since substrate stability is necessary for grasslands to occur at their climatic limit, the grassline rarely appears as a distinct linear feature.Universite de Lausanne5th RTD Framework Programme of the European UnionFoundation Dr. Joachim de GiacomiFondation MarietanMAVA FoundationNorwegian Environment AgencyScottish Natural HeritageSociete academique de GeneveSwiss Federal Office of Education and ScienceSwiss Federal Office for the EnvironmentTiroler WissenschaftsfondsTuscan-Emilian Apennines National ParkWissenschaftsforderung der Sudtiroler LandesregierungOrdesa & Monte Perdido National ParkResearch Commission of the Swiss National ParkVedecka grantova agentura MSVVaS SR a SAV (VEGA) 2/0132/18Italian project of strategic interest NextDataFrignano Regional Park (Modena)UK Centre for Ecology and HydrologyDepartement de la culture et des sports du ValaisGobierno de Arago

Decomposing the spatial and temporal effects of climate on bird populations in northern European mountains

The relationships between species abundance or occurrence versus spatial variation in climate are commonly used in species distribution models to forecast future distributions. Under "space-for-time substitution", the effects of climate variation on species are assumed to be equivalent in both space and time. Two unresolved issues of space-for-time substitution are the time period for species' responses and also the relative contributions of rapid- versus slow reactions in shaping spatial and temporal responses to climate change. To test the assumption of equivalence, we used a new approach of climate decomposition to separate variation in temperature and precipitation in Fennoscandia into spatial, temporal, and spatiotemporal components over a 23-year period (1996-2018). We compiled information on land cover, topography, and six components of climate for 1756 fixed route surveys, and we modeled annual counts of 39 bird species breeding in the mountains of Fennoscandia. Local abundance of breeding birds was associated with the spatial components of climate as expected, but the temporal and spatiotemporal climatic variation from the current and previous breeding seasons were also important. The directions of the effects of the three climate components differed within and among species, suggesting that species can respond both rapidly and slowly to climate variation and that the responses represent different ecological processes. Thus, the assumption of equivalent species' response to spatial and temporal variation in climate was seldom met in our study system. Consequently, for the majority of our species, space-for-time substitution may only be applicable once the slow species' responses to a changing climate have occurred, whereas forecasts for the near future need to accommodate the temporal components of climate variation. However, appropriate forecast horizons for space-for-time substitution are rarely considered and may be difficult to reliably identify. Accurately predicting change is challenging because multiple ecological processes affect species distributions at different temporal scales.Peer reviewe