Climate Variability and Change in High Elevation Regions: Past, Present & Future

ISBN-13: 9789048163229 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 283 str.

Henry F. Diaz

Opis

The world's mountain systems, including the people in them, have gained international attention in the last few decades. The United Nations' International Year of Mountains-2002 can be regarded as the culmination of a long process involving research, development of research networks, a greater awareness by various sectors of society of the critical importance of mountain regions for a sustainable future, and recognition of that fact by policy makers.
This volume reviews recent climatic trends in high elevation regions of the world, assessing the reliability of various environmental indicators that can be used for monitoring climatic change, and assessing whether physical impacts of climatic change in high elevation areas are becoming evident, and to discuss a range of monitoring strategies needed to observe and to understand the nature of such changes.

Spis treści

1. Climate Variability and Change in High Elevation Regions: Past, Present and Future; H.F. Diaz, et al. 2. Climatic Change in Mountain Regions: A Review of Possible Impacts; Beniston, Martin. 3. Variability of Freezing Levels, Melting Season Indicators, and Snow Cover for Selected High-Elevation and Continental Regions in the Last 50 Years; H.F. Diaz, et al. 4. Comparison of Radiosonde Temperature Climatologies and Trends at High and Low Elevation Sites; D. Seidel, M. Free. 5. 20th Century Climate Change in the Tropical Andes; M. Vuille, et al. 6. The Impact that Elevation Has on ENSO-Related Signal in Precipitation Records from the Gulf of Alaska Region; G.W.K. Moore, et al. 7. The Health of Glaciers: Recent Changes in Glacier Regime; M.F. Meier, et al. 8. Tropical Glacier and Ice Core Evidence of Climatic Change on Annual to Millennial Time Scales; L.G. Thompson, et al. 9. Climate Variability and Environmental Changes as Recorded in Glaciers from the Central Andes; U.M. Schotterer, et al. 10. Large-Scale Temperature Changes across the Southern Andes: 20th Century Variations in the Context of the Past 400 Years; R.A. Villalba, et al. 11. Frequency-Dependent Climate Signal in Upper and Lower Forest Border Trees in the Mountains of the Great Basin; M.K. Hughes, G. Funkhouser. 12. Multi-Decadal Variability of Precipitation in the Greater Yellowstone Region as Inferred from Tree Rings; L. Graumlich, J. Littell. 13. Taking the Pulse of Mountains: Ecosystem Responses to Climatic Variability; D.B. Fagre, et al.