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One of the most comprehensive documentaries ever produced about the relationship between climate change, mountain environments, and glaciers, The Last Glaciers shines a light on the rapid depletion of the world's water towers as a result of climate change. The Mountain Research Initiative is proud to be a science partner in support of this important film.
Released on World Water Day (22 March) and to be screened in IMAX cinemas worldwide, the highly anticipated documentary The Last Glaciers follows award-winning filmmaker Craig Leeson and United Nations Mountain Hero & Entrepreneur Malcolm Wood over the course of four years as they journey to the planet's remaining glaciers to explore the causes and effects of climate change in mountains – the location of our planet's vital, and vanishing, water reservoirs.
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New research, led by Dr Petra Holden from the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI), has shown how catchment restoration - through the management of alien tree infestation in the mountains of the southwestern Cape - could have lessened the impact of climate change on low river flows during the Cape Town 'Day Zero' drought.
Climate change is impacting extreme weather events such as droughts and floods. Nature-based solutions, such as catchment restoration, involve working with ecosystems and landscapes to address societal challenges. These challenges include the impacts of climate change on water resources. Up to now, studies have not separated the role of nature-based solutions in reducing the human-driven climate change impacts of extreme events on water availability from that of natural climate variability.
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Research led by Dr. Estefania Quenta-Herrera, research associate at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés and a participant in the MRI co-led Mentoring and Training Program in IPCC Processes for Early Career Mountain Researchers, explores the impact of protected areas on high-elevation freshwater ecosystems, their biodiversity, and their ecosystem services in the tropical Andes.
Although protected areas (PAs) play an important role in ecosystem conservation and climate change adaptation, no systematic information is available on the impact of PA in terms of the protection of high-elevation freshwater ecosystems, their biodiversity, and their ecosystem services in the tropical Andes. Research published in the journal Environmental Conservation seeks to help address that gap.
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Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption. Safeguarding and strengthening nature is key to securing a liveable future, latest IPCC report says.
Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks. People and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released today.
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Satellite images could offer a new way to monitor for avalanche threats to remote mountain communities, according to University of Aberdeen scientists studying deadly Himalayan avalanche.
The team from the University of Aberdeen’s School of Geosciences used satellite imaging to study the movements of two avalanche events, in 2016 and 2021, that happened in the same Himalayan valley. The most severe of these, which struck a high-mountain township in India’s Chamoli district on February 7 last year, caused a flash flood that killed more than 200 people and destroyed key infrastructure.
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This paper by Price et al. presents a synthesis of the outcomes of sessions and recommendations for future research in mountain areas from the International Mountain Conference (IMC), held in Innsbruck, Austria, in September 2019.
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In this focus issue, studies from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Ecuador, and across the Andes investigate factors affecting pastoral social-ecological systems in mountains, and how societies respond to environmental, socioeconomic, and political changes.
The studies also present recommendations for action on behalf of sustainable development, especially toward enhancing resilience in mountain pastoral systems. The guest editors hope that the rich insights will spark multistakeholder collaboration and innovation to tackle the challenges facing pastoralists and rangelands in mountains today.
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On 10 February 2022, the Mountain Research Initiative and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research signed a Letter of Understanding to explore the joint promotion and implementation of projects and activities of mutual interest in the areas of research, capacity building, and the science-policy interface.
The Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) is a regional intergovernmental organization that promotes transdisciplinary scientific research and capacity-building to inform decision-makers for the development of public policy relevant to global change. With an interest in collaborating and cross-promoting initiatives in areas of scientific research and capacity development, as well as in supporting decision-making in environmental management through information that allows an integrated approach to the socioeconomic and environmental challenges faced in mountain regions in the Americas, the IAI and the MRI have signed a Letter of Understanding.
