In Chile, a country more than 4,000 km long, few things are constant. Its people, climate, and landscape present an ever-changing array of differences. But there is one thing that you can find everywhere you look: the Andes. This massive mountain range crosses our country and, to some extent, determines all kinds of activities that will take part in our beloved strip of land. One of these activities, perhaps the oldest, is transhumant pastoralism. Contemporary transhumance in the central and northern Andes of Chile starts with pre-Hispanic transhumant practices, carried out with camelid livestock by the Aymara, Colla and Atacameña people, inheritors of the nomadic past of the first human settlements that followed the migratory routes of wild camelids, including guanacos and vicuñas. The knowledge of routes and plants of these cultures was, for lack of a better word, adopted by the Spanish conquistadores, who also had a long tradition of...
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Understanding the complex changes in mountainous regions is challenging compared to the lowland areas. Human interventions in mountains have been reductionist, hindering progress in analysing their identity and impacts. This article identifies characteristics of the mountains to help understand and make necessary positive changes. A more interdisciplinary approach can lead to a holistic framework for designing sustainable transformations that ensure well-being for people and the environment.
The Canadian Mountain Assessment (CMA) provides a first-of-its-kind look at what we know, do not know, and need to know about mountain systems in Canada.
In October 2022, almost 30 expert participants from nine countries met to discuss current topics of Andean peatland ecology and to develop a joint methodology for the long-term assessment of C cycling in these ecosystems. The workshop aimed at initiating a regional research network encompassing all countries with high-Andean tropical cushion peatlands.
Mountains are pristine, remote, with fresh, clean air, an intact biodiversity, and a perfectly well-preserved environment. WRONG! We are sorry to bring bad news, but our work clearly shows that there are a huge amount of different chemical molecules found in mountain lakes.
People usually perceive space and time by comparing them to their own life. Words such as “forever” and “until the end” appear in fiction. But how can we imagine the space and time of the mountain glaciers whose existence goes beyond our usual perception? And why is it so important for us now? In this blog post, researcher Alexandra Rogozhina shares her thoughts on these suggestive topics.
Anthropologists are documenting how global warming is transforming Asia’s water tower and threatening the livelihoods of farmers and herders. On a cold evening in 2012, anthropologist Jiban Mani Poudel sat sharing tea and snacks with mountain herders huddled around a cattle pen in Nepal’s Nhāson Valley. A wizened 63-year-old herder, Gunjaman Gurung, exclaimed, “Norusaiba has almost begun,” referring to the seasonal arrival of cold winds and dewfall, when the meadows slowly turn brown and die, and herders bring their cattle down the Himalayan slopes. For the next six years, over many cups of tea in the mountains, Poudel, who teaches at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, discovered how attuned mountain herding communities are to nature’s cues. Nepal’s traditional herders, for example, set their lives according to nature’s cues, such as ngosho, the season tied to flowering plants. Climate change is reshaping the Himalayas in many ways: While the Upper Mustang region becomes more arid, other areas,...
This blog post written by Jonas Lembrechts, postdoctoral researcher at the Centre of Excellence on Plants and Ecosystems at the University of Antwerp, presents a standardized protocol developed by the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN). The protocol was designed to systematically quantify global patterns of native and non-native species distributions along elevation gradients and shifts in these distributions arising from interactive effects of climate change and human disturbance.
Mexico City is one of the most disaster-prone urban areas in the world. Following an earthquake, marginalized communities living on the city’s periphery are exposed to more dangers than just collapsing buildings.
“Not again, please,” thought Sofía López when a magnitude 7.1 earthquake shook Mexico City on 7 September.
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