Environmental Change in Mountains and Uplands

About this book

Provides an authoritative overview of the use of palaoenvironmental records to study environmental change in mountain areas.

Contents

Part 1 Mountains and uplands - an introduction: mountain regions of the world; importance of mountain regions to humankind; current environmental and socio-economic information and statistics; environmental stresses - the emergence of the human factor; global environmental change - fundamental issues. Part 2 Characterization of mountain environments: climate; hydrological systems; cryosphere; soils; ecological systems and biodiversity; human environments; data for research on mountain environments. Part 3 Past environmental change in mountains and uplands; proxy data - reconstructing the past; environmental change in the distant past; mountain environments during the last major glaciation; mountain environments during the holocene; climate change in the 20th century. Part 4 Modelling approaches to assess environmental change; the significance of modelling; spatial and temporal scales; global and regional climate models; semi-empirical methods and statistical downscaling techniques; ecosystem models; integrated assessment models (IAM); limits and range of application of models. Part 5 Natural forcings: the causal mechanisms of anthropogenic pressures on the environment; environmental pollution; land-use changes; climate change. Part 6 Impact of environmental change on natural systems; challenges for impacts assessments; impact on hydrology; impact on mountain cryosphere; extreme events and their impacts on geomorphologic features.

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