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- Category: Global News
The Mountain Research Initiative Coordination Office was extremely saddened to hear news of the flood/debris flow disaster that occurred in the mountainous Chamoli district of Uttarakhand State, India, on the morning of 7 February 20211.
At the time of writing (11 February), 34 people are known to have lost their lives, and at least 174 people remain missing2. Two hydropower stations and other infrastructure, including roads and bridges, were destroyed. We hope that the remainder of the rescue and recovery operation will proceed as efficiently as the challenging circumstances in this fragile social-ecological system allow. Several members of the MRI network, in conjunction with Indian scientists, are contributing to develop an understanding of the event and its impacts.
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As part of our commitment to support our research community to advance key research questions relevant for knowledge on social-ecological systems in mountains, the MRI funds MRI Synthesis Workshops.
These workshops bring together global change researchers to address specific topics of interest to the mountain research community, with the objective of producing synthesis products such as articles for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals or the compilation of relevant data into publishable datasets or databases. For the 2020 call, the MRI Coordination Office received 13 proposals that met the conditions for funding support, from which two were selected. Due to the complex situation around the COVID-19 pandemic for much of 2020, the first of these Synthesis Workshops will take place online in 2021.
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The Biosphere Futures database, a global collection of social-ecological scenarios "creating a commons to strengthen the practice," is seeking scenario and case study contributions from the mountain research community.
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The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), PAst Global ChangES Early-Career Network (PAGES-ECN), Permafrost Young Research Network (PYRN), and Young Earth System Scientists (YESS) community successfully organized the group review of the Second Order Draft (SOD) of Working Group II (WGII) contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report (AR6) by early career scientists.
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The One Planet Fellowship is a career-accelerator designed to enhance the capacity of high potential African agricultural researchers focused on climate change adaptation, by building their leadership, scientific research, networking, and mentoring skills.
Application deadline 15 February 2021.
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Nearly a quarter of Italian alpine plant species are threatened by glacier retreat, according to a new study from Stanford University. Glaciers around the world are predicted to disappear within the next decade and the consequences for the plants, animals, and societies surrounding them are still uncertain. By combining historical records, current surveys, and computational models, the researchers’ findings may help guide conservation efforts.
Beyond the ski slopes, one of the most iconic symbols of the Alps are the alpine flowers. These plants are not only beautiful–they are also used in liqueurs and medicines, and they form the foundation of the local food chains. But a recent study in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution shows that, although plant diversity may initially increase with glacier retreat, many of these species may soon become endangered.
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The Pathways of Transformation in the Alps (PORTAL) project, hosted by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), seeks the mountain research community's input to assess nature-based solutions and their potential for transformative change in the Alps.
The following questionnaire serves to identify nature-based adaptation initiatives in the Alps. The Alps, and the people that depend on its biodiversity and ecosystem services, are highly sensitive to climate change and therefore are pioneering multiple adaptation actions.
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