Revista MRI Nro. 7 sobre el Cambio Global en la Coordillera Americana

Está a disposición de los interesados el último el ejemplar número de la revista de la Iniciativa de Investigación en Montañas (MRI), sección 7, titulado "Promoviendo la Investigación sobre el Cambio Global en la Coordillera Americana" (disponible en inglés).

El MRI co-patrocinó la conferencia "Cambio Climático: Organizando la Ciencia para la Cordillera Americana" (CONCORD). Esta conferencia resume la investigación actual e identifica las brechas científicas y sus necesidades de adaptación a estos cambios globales a lo largo de la Coordillera desde Alaska hasta Tierra del Fuego.

The MRI recently co-sponsored the
conference “Climate Change: Organizing
the Science for the American
Cordillera (CONCORD).” This conference
summarized current
research and identified scientific
gaps and research needs to support
adaptation to global change along
the Cordillera from Alaska to Tierra
del Fuego. Immediately after the
conference the MRI sponsored the
“Cordillera Transect Workshop” in
order to design concrete projects to
fill these research gaps.

CONCORD: the first inter-
American conference on
global change research along
the American Cordillera

Mendoza, Argentina, is the home of
IANIGLA, the Instituto Argentino de
Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias
Ambientales (Argentine Institute for
Snow Studies, Glaciology and Environmental
Sciences). From 4–6 April
2006 IANIGLA’s director, Ricardo
Villalba, hosted CONCORD with its
150 participants as well as 3 side
events (a meeting of the Working
Group on Snow and Ice of the
UNESCO Latin American Hydrological
Program, an IHDP Networking in
the Andes meeting chaired by Fausto
Sarmiento, and the Cordillera Transect
Workshop organized by the
MRI). The MRI was part of the Organizing
Committee (co-chaired by
Henry F. Diaz of NOAA and Ricardo
Villalba), and the manager of program
development and invitations.

Mountain regions of the western
American Cordillera may be especially
vulnerable to changes in climate, to
the ensuing changes in snowpack,
streamflow, and ecosystem functioning,
and to a host of impacts on
human and natural systems. In these
mountain regions small perturbations
in global processes can cascade to

produce large changes in both highlands
and lowlands, ultimately affecting
the health, safety, and prosperity
of people throughout the region.

Outcomes of the conference

Excellent presentations over 3 days
yielded insights into topics, methods,
and findings of current global
change research along the American
Cordillera. Some of the urgent
topics identified with respect to
earth system functions were:

• A dearth of meteorological
  observations at high altitudes;


• Uneven geographical distribution
  of monitoring sites;


• Scaling up from benchmark stations;


• Determination of the true range
  of historic variation in climate
  and environmental conditions;


• Linkage of climate to hydrology;


• Monitoring multiple variables in
  the same areas (climate, biology,
  hydro);


• Interaction of climate with fire
  and insects in changing forest
  composition;


• Lack of central depository for climate
  data from all sources
  (national meteorological services,
  power companies, and individual
  researchers or programs).

Some of the urgent topics identified
with respect to impacts on people
and resources were:

• Thresholds of climatic change
  and variability: when does a
  change in climate translate into
  an important impact?


• Linkage of fundamental research
  to applied concerns;


• Relevance of stakeholder perception
  in defining scientific questions;


• Mechanisms by which scientific
  results influence policy;


• Adaptation of existing reservoir
  and water management systems;


• Interaction with additional global
  change drivers in Latin America:
  economic development, population
  movements, rapid and extreme
  land cover change with impacts
  on air quality, and water use.

The program and the presentations
(as webcasts) are available at the MRI
website: http://mri.scnatweb.ch/content/category/7/44/66/. The
abstracts volume, the meeting summary
and the list of participants can
also be found here.

The American Cordillera Transect Workshop

This workshop offered an opportunity
to sign up for concrete collaboration
addressing the issues raised
in the CONCORD conference
through the development of specific
research projects in sites along
the American Cordillera.
The long-term goal of the
Cordillera Transect is to establish a
transect of pole–equator–pole

global change research sites and to
integrate their researchers in a
trans-American network working
with comparable methods. Data and
results can thus be shared and compared.

In addition, the MRI is aiming
for interdisciplinary projects, ie
projects that examine the basic
functioning of the earth systems
and the impacts, as well as transdisciplinary
work, to promote stakeholder
involvement in project
development.
The workshop launched the
American Cordillera Transect with 6
international working groups established
at the end of the day. The
groups have 6 months to develop
project descriptions to be used by
the participants in the development
of funding proposals. A successful
project description will specify the
precise research themes and methods,
the timetable, the institutions
and researchers involved, and the
sources of funding.

The contact persons and participants
in the working groups on Science
and Stakeholders, Hydrological
Modeling, Forests, Biodiversity,
Land Use and Land Cover Change,
and Climate Data can be found at:
http://mri.scnatweb.ch/content/category/3/45/67/.

The American Cordillera
Transect is the first instance
of MRI’s Real Projects in
Real Places

The GLOCHAMORE Research Strategy
laid out a global template for
global change research in mountain
regions. The MRI’s Dr. Astrid
Björnsen Gurung took the scientific
lead of the “Global Change in Mountain
Regions” (GLOCHAMORE)
project, of which the major product
was the GLOCHAMORE Research

Strategy (see also Mountain Research
and Development 26(1), pp 282–283;
for the Research Strategy go to
http://mri.scnatweb.ch/content/view/74/31).

It is now the MRI’s task to initiate
and support regional networks
of global change research. Regional
foci are the American Cordillera,
the European Mountains, North
and Central Asia, Southeast Asia,
and Africa.
MountainPlatform
Example of current research
Climate Change in the Tropical Andes—Observations, Models, and Simulated Future Impacts on
Glaciers and Streamflow
The tropical Andes are one of the regions where recent climate change is most evident. As a result, glaciers are receding, with
potentially severe consequences for the availability of drinking water, and water for irrigation, mining, and hydropower production.