Alpine Landscapes Research Articles

Fuels and landscape flammability in an Australian alpine environment

AbstractFactors governing landscape‐scale flammability are poorly understood, yet critical to managing fire regimes. Studies of the extent and severity of the 2003 Australian alpine fires revealed marked differences in flammability between major alpine plant communities, with the occurrence and severity of fire greater in heathland compared to grassland. To understand this spatial variation in landscape flammability, we documented variation in two physical properties of fuel – load and bulk density – at the life‐form and plant community scale. We measured the load (mass per unit area) and bulk density (mass per unit volume) of fine fuels (<6 mm) at 56 sites across the Bogong High Plains, southeastern Australia. Fine fuel load was positively correlated with shrub cover, and fine fuel bulk density was negatively correlated with shrub cover. Furthermore, fine fuel load and bulk density were accurately predicted using simple measures of canopy height and shrub cover. We also conducted a burning experiment on individual shrubs and snowgrass (Poa spp.) patches to assess comparative differences in flammability between these life‐forms. The burning experiment revealed that shrubs were more flammable than snowgrass as measured by a range of flammability variables. Consequently, our results indicate that treeless alpine landscapes of southeastern Australia are differentially flammable because of inherent life‐form differences in both fine fuel load and bulk density. If shrub cover increases in these alpine landscapes, as projected under climate change, then they are likely to become more flammable and may experience more frequent and/or severe fires.

Climate-related adaptive genetic variation and population structure in natural stands of Norway spruce in the South-Eastern Alps

Forest trees dominate many Alpine landscapes that are currently exposed to changing climate. Norway spruce is one of the most important conifer species of the Italian Alps, and natural populations are found across steep environmental gradients with large differences in temperature and moisture availability. This study seeks to determine and quantify patterns of genetic diversity in natural populations toward understanding adaptive responses to changing climate. Across the Italian species range, 24 natural stands were sampled with a major focus on the Eastern Italian Alps. Sampled trees were genotyped for 384 selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 285 genes. A wide array of potential candidate genes was tested for correlation with climatic parameters. To minimize false-positive association between genotype and climate, population structure was investigated. Pairwise F ST estimates between sampled populations ranged between 0.000 and 0.075, with the highest values involving the two disjoint populations, Valdieri, on the western Italian Alps, and Campolino, the most southern population on the Apennines. Despite considerable genetic admixture among populations, both Bayesian and multivariate approach identified four genetic clusters. Selection scans revealed five F ST outliers, and the environmental association analysis detected ten SNPs associated to one or more climatic variables. Overall, 13 potentially adaptive loci were identified, three of which have been reported in a previous study on the same species conducted on a broader geographical scale. In our study, precipitation, more than temperature, was often associated with genotype; therefore, it appears as the most important environmental variable associated with the high sensitivity of Norway spruce to soil water supply. These findings provide relevant information for understanding and quantifying climate change effects on this species and its ability to genetically adapt.

Are interest groups different in the factors determining landscape preferences?

In the last decades, rural landscape in Europe has evolved from an agricultural by-product to an important public good. This development creates not only new challenges to farming practices, it also makes participation and public involvement an indispensable tool for sustainable landscape planning. This is especially true for many European mountain regions, where tourism represents an important source of income and conflicts between locals’ and tourists’ interests should be avoided. In our study, we analyze whether discrepancies in the perception of the Alpine landscape can be located between locals and tourists and, if these differences exist, in which aspects these two groups are differing. A model employing three general factors able to describe landscape preferences regardless of the personal background is suggested and validated by confirmatory factor analysis. Our major finding shows that an attractive landscape for tourists does not have to be contradictory to a landscape that supports a high living quality for locals. Compromises in landscape planning between locals’ and tourists’ requirements seem often not to be necessary as they, generally, do not differ in the way they experience and assess the landscape.

The development of human activity in the high altitudes of the Schnals Valley (South Tyrol/Italy) from the Mesolithic to modern periods

This paper reports on the previous use of a mountainous landscape (Schnals Valley, South Tyrol/Italy) and how this relates to socio-economic processes from the Mesolithic to modern period. The results of archaeological surveys, the interpretation of excavated archaeological features and changes from natural to cultural landscape as evidenced by palynological and plant macrofossil analyses are presented and discussed. The resultant land-use-history documents a human presence over more than 10,000years and evidences the diversity of human activities during these prehistoric and historic periods. In the Mesolithic (c. 9000–6000calBC) the availability of faunal species above the tree line is seen as the main attractor for the investigation of high altitudes by humans. At the beginning of the Neolithic (c. 6000–3500calBC), there seems to have been little interest in the high alpine environment of the Schnals Valley despite the existence of agro-pastoral communities in the main valley of Vinschgau. Following a hiatus, new evidence for human presence is observed at the end of the Neolithic (about 4000calBC), probably caused by a climate deterioration that forced populations to frequent the high alpine landscape for hunting once again. During the Chalcolithic (c. 3500–2200BC), the Iceman and his equipment demonstrate utilisation of the area for hunting just as in the earlier periods. A major impact on the natural landscape is emerges during the Bronze Age (c. 2200–1000calBC) based on the onset of transhumance system in the study area. Pasture indicators show intensification during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1700–1350calBC) validated also by archaeological features connected to pastoralism. High alpine farming remains important in later prehistoric periods. The Iron Age (c. 1000–15calBC) is represented by an initial decrease in find sites, caused by the Hallstatt climate depression before the emergence of a favourable climate for high alpine farming about 400calBC. During the Roman period, pollen diagrams show continuity in pastoral activities, however this is not reflected by archaeological features. During the Medieval and modern periods, human activity increases again as documented by a large number of animal enclosures and by a regional transit route for communication across the passes of the main Alpine ridge.

MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTION OF BLAPS SCABRIUSCULA MÉNÉTRIÉS, 1832 (COLEOPTERA: TENEBRIONIDAE)

Aim. Distribution, habitats and morphological variability of two subspecies of the endemic Caucasian species Blaps scabriuscula Menetries, 1832 are considered in the paper. Results and main conclusions. Nominotypical subspecies is very rare and inhabits deserts of eastern Azerbaijan (Gobustan). The subspecies Blaps scabriuscula subalpina is distributed in the Eastern and the Central Caucasus and inhabits steppe and alpine landscapes to 3000 m. Several morphological forms are separated from the Central (North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, KarachayCherkessia) and the Eastern Caucasus (Chechnya, Dagestan, southern slopes of the Big Caucasus from Azerbaijan to Georgia – Khevsureti). Blaps scabriuscula subalpina is found in Rostov-on-Don (the first record for Rostov Region) in sandy soil meadow during building works. Rostov population is morphologically differs from Caucasian populations of the species. It is assumed that this record is associated with the ancient human migrations because of many representatives of this species-group (B. mortisaga (Linnaeus, 1758), B. puella Allard, 1880, B. scabriuscula, B. kovali Abdurakhmanov, Nabozhenko, 2011) have a propensity to synanthropy. Morphological description of Rostov population and differential characters of Caucasian populations are given. Female genital tubes of different populations of B. scabriuscula are described and figured for the first time. Nominatypical subspecies is strongly differs from other Caucasian Blaps Fabricius, 1775 in the structure of female genital tubes.

Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development in Mountainous Areas - Case of Kelmend

Natural and Cultural Heritage preservation is an important issue toward sustainable development. This paper is focused on Kelmend - a region lying in Northern Albania in the cross border area with Montenegro. Its beauty and greatness is because of the natural heritage which constitutes the main advantage for its future development. Kelmend Region represents a typical alpine landscape with high peaks and deep valleys and with a rich biodiversity. The environment protection and the preservation of natural heritage is the most important aspect toward the sustainable development of the area, but cultural heritage is also as much important. It reflects an authentic complexity which is at risk. The article tries to explore this second issue: the socio-economic sustainability based on cultural heritage. Despite the rich and unspoiled natural and cultural heritage certain factors limits the effective management of the area. The tangible and intangible culture is not protected and is adapting everyday to the consumers’ needs being so under the threat of standardization. Through qualitative methodology we argue the possibility of using the past as a resource for the future in this specific area. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n3s1p481

Nitrogen deposition but not climate warming promotes Deyeuxia angustifolia encroachment in alpine tundra of the Changbai Mountains, Northeast China

Vegetation in the alpine tundra area of the Changbai Mountains, one of two alpine tundra areas in China, has undergone great changes in recent decades. The aggressive herb species Deyeuxia angustifolia (Komarov) Y. L. Chang, a narrow-leaf small reed, was currently encroaching upon the alpine landscape and threatening tundra biota. The alpine tundra of the Changbai Mountains has been experiencing a warmer climate and receiving a high load of atmospheric nitrogen deposition. In this study, we aimed to assess the respective roles of climate warming and atmospheric nitrogen deposition in promoting the upward encroachment of D. angustifolia. We conducted experiments for three years to examine the response of D. angustifolia and a native alpine shrub, Rhododendron chrysanthum, to the conditions in which temperature and nitrogen were increased. Treatments consisting of temperature increase, nitrogen addition, temperature increase combined with nitrogen addition, and controls were conducted on the D. angustifolia communities with three encroachment levels (low, medium, and high levels). Results showed that 1) D. angustifolia grew in response to added nutrients but did not grow well when temperature increased. R. chrysanthum showed negligible responses to the simulated environmental changes. 2) Compared to R. chrysanthum, D. angustifolia could effectively occupy the above-ground space by increasing tillers and growing rapidly by efficiently using nitrogen. The difference in nitrogen uptake abilities between the two species contributed to expansion of D. angustifolia. 3) D. angustifolia encroachment could deeply change the biodiversity of tundra vegetation and may eventually result in the replacement of native biota, especially with nitrogen addition. Our research indicated that nutrient perturbation may be more important than temperature perturbation in promoting D. angustifolia encroachment upon the nutrient- and species-poor alpine tundra ecosystem in the Changbai Mountains.

Late Glacial and Holocene paleoenvironmental records in the Tatra Mountains, East-Central Europe, based on lake, peat bog and colluvial sedimentary data: A summary review

The Tatra Mountains are the highest massif in the Carpathian mountain arc (2655 m) and represent a typical alpine landscape developed in the course of Pleistocene glaciations, but are not glacierized today. The glacial relief of the massif offers an abundance of topographic depressions (cirque overdeepenings, morainic closed depressions) where sedimentary sequences may potentially reveal paleoenvironmental changes that may have occurred since the glaciers' retreat from the Last Glacial Maximum position (∼26–18 ka). We present a review of Late Glacial and Holocene sedimentary archives from the Tatra Mountains collected in the Polish and non-Polish literature. The data sets (40 sites) included 21 lake, 13 peat bog, and 6 colluvial sediment sites. The entire listed sediment sequence features radiometric datings or at the very least a chronological framework is inferred from the biostratigraphy. The oldest sampled sedimentary sequences were dated back to the Oldest Dryas and were obtained from the deepest glacial lakes located in the subalpine zone (up to 1700 m). Shallow lakes (<10 m) and morainic closed depressions do not reveal sediments older than the Holocene. This can be linked with dry climate conditions and unfavorable hydrologic regimes during the Late Glacial when the studied depressions remained dry over the long term following deglaciation, irrespective of elevation and position in the glaciated valley system. For the Holocene, several millennial-scale phases of climate humidity and increased debris flow activity were identified. The intensification of debris flows is indicated at 9–7.5 ka and during the mid- to late Holocene (at ca. 6 ka, 3.5 ka, 2 ka, after 300 AD, 800–1000 AD, and LIA), separated by relatively stable climate conditions during the 'Holocene thermal optimum' (7.5–6 ka). The LIA in the Tatra Mountains was a relatively long (1220–1925 AD) and climatically unstable period, with a cold and dry first phase (1220–1540 AD), followed by a cold and humid phase (1540–1925 AD). During the modern warm period, renewed intensification of extreme slope processes has been recorded after 1970 AD.

Contrasting effects of biotic interactions on richness and distribution of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens in an arctic–alpine landscape

Biotic interactions may strongly affect the distribution of individual species and the resulting patterns of species richness. However, the impacts can vary depending on the species or taxa examined, suggesting that the influences of interactions on species distributions and diversity are not always straightforward and can be taxon-contingent. The aim of this study was therefore to examine how the importance of biotic interactions varies within a community. We incorporated three biotic predictors (cover of the dominant vascular species) into two correlative species richness modelling frameworks to predict spatial variation in the number of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens in arctic–alpine Fennoscandia, in N Europe. In addition, predictions based on single-species distribution models were used to determine the nature of the impact (negative vs. positive outcome) of the three dominant species on individual vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen species. Our results suggest that biotic variables can be as important as abiotic variables, but their relative contributions in explaining the richness of sub-dominant species vary among dominant species, species group and the modelling framework implemented. Similarly, the impacts of biotic interactions on individual species varied among the three species groups and dominant species, with the observed patterns partly reflecting species’ biogeographic range. Our study provides additional support for the importance of biotic interactions in modifying arctic–alpine biodiversity patterns and highlights that the impacts of interactions are not constant across taxa or biotic drivers. The influence of biotic interactions, including the taxon contingency and range-based impacts, should therefore be accounted for when developing biodiversity forecasts.

Great influence of geographic isolation on the genetic differentiation of Myriophyllum spicatum under a steep environmental gradient.

Understanding how natural processes affect population genetic structures is an important issue in evolutionary biology. One effective method is to assess the relative importance of environmental and geographical factors in the genetic structure of populations. In this study, we examined the spatial genetic variation of thirteen Myriophyllum spicatum populations from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and adjacent highlands (Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, YGP) by using microsatellite loci and environmental and geographical factors. Bioclim layers, hydrological properties and elevation were considered as environmental variables and reduced by principal component analysis. The genetic isolation by geographic distance (IBD) was tested by Mantel tests and the relative importance of environmental variables on population genetic differentiation was determined by a partial Mantel test and multiple matrix regression with randomization (MMRR). Two genetic clusters corresponding to the QTP and YGP were identified. Both tests and MMRR revealed a significant and strong correlation between genetic divergence and geographic isolation under the influence of environmental heterogeneity at the overall and finer spatial scales. Our findings suggested the dominant role of geography on the evolution of M. spicatum under a steep environmental gradient in the alpine landscape as a result of dispersal limitation and genetic drift.

Flow intermittency, physico-chemistry and function of headwater streams in an Alpine glacial catchment

Relatively little is known regarding the extent of intermittent streams or the general ecology of headwaters in alpine catchments with glacial influence. This study quantified the contribution of intermittent streams to the total length of the stream network along with an ecological assessment during spring-summer of headwater streams (higher than 1,900 m above sea level) in the Val Roseg, a high Alpine glacial catchment. Stream network mapping revealed that ca. 90 % (76.8 km) of the drainage network consisted of intermittent streams. Glacier-fed headwaters experienced diel surface flows in late spring and summer, most going dry during the night due to reduced glacial inputs. In contrast, groundwater-fed streams often went dry in summer with the contraction of groundwater and other subsurface inputs. A principal components analysis of physico-chemical characteristics revealed headwaters to be primarily glacial-fed (kryal), groundwater-fed (krenal), or having a mixed water source. Although quite variable, periphyton biomass reached high levels (ca. 40 mg m−2 chl-a, 10 g m−2 AFDM) by late spring in most headwaters. Organic matter in transport (seston) ranged from 0.03 to 0.09 mg L−1 mostly consisting of fine particulate organic matter (FPOM: 33–76 %). Hyporheic sediment respiration rates varied considerably, ranging from 0.005 to 0.126 mg O2 h−1 kg−1 sediment and primarily related to the amount of loosely attached organic matter. These results indicate that intermittent streams are predominant in alpine landscapes, comprising mostly 1st to 2nd order systems, and that ecosystem properties vary substantially among headwater streams likely in relation to annual/daily changes in flow and water source. Such headwaters may contribute strongly to the production, processing and transport of organic matter to downstream waters, especially in light of the expected increase in intermittent streams in alpine catchments experiencing rapid glacial recession.

Minimal erosion of Arctic alpine topography during late Quaternary glaciation

Alpine topography in Europe has been shaped by recent glaciations. Cosmogenic dating of summits in Svalbard suggest that Arctic alpine topography is a million years old and that subsequent glaciations have preserved rather than eroded the landscape. The alpine topography observed in many mountainous regions is thought to have formed during repeated glaciations of the Quaternary period1,2. Before this time, landscapes had much less relief1,2,3. However, the spatial patterns and rates of Quaternary exhumation at high latitudes—where cold-based glaciers may protect rather than erode landscapes—are not fully quantified. Here we determine the exposure and burial histories of rock samples from eight summits of steep alpine peaks in northwestern Svalbard (79.5° N) using analyses of 10Be and 26Al concentrations4,5. We find that the summits have been preserved for at least the past one million years. The antiquity of Svalbard’s alpine landscape is supported by the preservation of sediments older than one million years along a fjord valley6, which suggests that both mountain summits and low-elevation landscapes experienced very low erosion rates over the past million years. Our findings support the establishment of northwestern Svalbard’s alpine topography during the early Quaternary. We suggest that, as the Quaternary ice age progressed, glacial erosion in the Arctic became inefficient and confined to ice streams, and high-relief alpine landscapes were preserved by minimally erosive glacier armour.

Estimations In Distribution And Growing Characteristics Of Wild Hypericum Perforatum L. (Hypericaceae) Populations During The Last Decade In Armenia

The small mountainous country of Armenia has a rich flora of ca. 3600 species of vascular plants, which makes about half of entire Caucasian flora, distributed across desert and semi-desert, steppe, forest and alpine landscape. Anthropogenic threats to this biodiversity such as overpopulation, deforestation and urbanization have simultaneously hindered research and increased the need for it. Of the ca. 500 species in the Armenian flora with a record of medicinal and/or economic use, ca. 50 species are used in the folk medicine and include both wild-collected (Crataegus sp., Hypericum perforatum, Artemisia absinthium) and cultivated (Chamomilla recutita, Mentha piperita, Crocus sativus) species (1). Only limited information on the genetic biodiversity, population location, structure and size, and conservation status of most of these species is, however, at this time available. During 2007-2009, field studies were conducted to re-locate populations of wild Hypericum perforatum L. (common St. Johnswort, Hypericaceae) on the basis of historical (i.e. herbarium voucher, (2)) records, and to discover new populations. The plants habitat and phenological characteristics were estimated growing in different populations. GPS map of population distribution was created and its overall sizes were assessed. According to historical records this species had been widely distributed in the south regions of Armenia, however almost half of the populations no longer existed in the cited locations. However, 2 new populations were loacated in the south east regions. Evidence that the abundance and distributional range of H. perforatum is expanding in the north region was collected. This research provided baseline data that can be used for the development of further ex situ and in vitro strategies to conserve unique genotypes of this important medicinal and culinary species in Armenia.

Small-scale drivers: the importance of nutrient availability and snowmelt timing on performance of the alpine shrub Salix herbacea.

Alpine plant communities are predicted to face range shifts and possibly extinctions with climate change. Fine-scale environmental variation such as nutrient availability or snowmelt timing may contribute to the ability of plant species to persist locally; however, variation in nutrient availability in alpine landscapes is largely unmeasured. On three mountains around Davos, Switzerland, we deployed Plant Root Simulator probes around 58 Salix herbacea plants along an elevational and microhabitat gradient to measure nutrient availability during the first 5 weeks of the summer growing season, and used in situ temperature loggers and observational data to determine date of spring snowmelt. We also visited the plants weekly to assess performance, as measured by stem number, fruiting, and herbivory damage. We found a wide snowmelt gradient which determined growing season length, as well as variations of an order of magnitude or more in the accumulation of 12 nutrients between different microhabitats. Higher nutrient availability had negative effects on most shrub performance metrics, for instance decreasing stem number and the proportion of stems producing fruits. High nutrient availability was associated with increased herbivory damage in early-melting microhabitats, but among late-emerging plants this pattern was reversed. We demonstrate that nutrient availability is highly variable in alpine settings, and that it strongly influences performance in an alpine dwarf shrub, sometimes modifying the response of shrubs to snowmelt timing. As the climate warms and human-induced nitrogen deposition continues in the Alps, these factors may contribute to patterns of local plants persistence.

Mapping degraded grassland on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau with multi-temporal Landsat 8 data — where do the severely degraded areas occur?

The Tibetan Plateau in Western China is the world’s largest alpine landscape, sheltering a rich diversity of native flora and fauna. In the past few decades, the Tibetan Plateau was found to suffer from grassland degradation processes. Grassland degradation is assumed to not only endanger biodiversity but also to increase the risk for natural hazards in other parts of the country which are ecologically and hydrologically connected to the area. However, the mechanisms behind the degradation processes remain poorly understood due to scarce baseline data and insufficient scientific research.We argue that remote sensing data can help to better understand degradation processes and patterns by: (1) identifying the distribution of severely degraded areas and (2) comparing the patterns of key spatial attributes of the identified areas (altitude above sea level, aspect, slope, administrative districts) with existing theories on degradation drivers. Therefore, we applied four Landsat 8 images covering large portions of the three counties Jigzhi, Baima and Darlag in the Eastern Tibetan Plateau. The dates of the Landsat scenes were selected to cover differing phenological stages of the ecosystem. Reference data were collected with a remotely piloted aircraft and a standard consumer RGB camera. To exploit the phenological information in the Landsat data as well as deal with the problem of cloud cover in multiple images, we developed a straightforward PCA-based procedure to merge the Landsat scenes. The merged Landsat data served as input to a supervised support vector machine classification which was validated with an iterative bootstrap procedure and an additional independent validation set. The considered classes were “high-cover grassland”, “grassland (including several stages of grassland vitality)”, “(severely) degraded grassland”, “green shrubland”, “grey shrubland”, “urban areas” and “water bodies”. Kappa accuracies ranged between 0.84 and 0.93 in the iterative procedure, while the independent validation led to a kappa accuracy of 0.76. Mean producer’s and user’s accuracies for all classes were higher than 80%, and confusion mainly occurred between the two shrubland classes and between the three grassland classes.Analysis of the slope, aspect and altitude values of the vegetation classes revealed that the degraded areas mostly occurred at the higher altitudes of the study area (4300–4600m), with no strong connection to any specific slope or aspect. High-cover grassland was mostly located on sunny slopes at lower altitudes (less than 4300m), while shrubland preferred shady, relatively steep slopes across all altitudes. These observations proved to be stable across the examined counties, while the proportions of land-cover classes differed between the examined regions. Most counties showed 5–7% severely degraded land cover. Darlag, the county located at the edge of the permafrost zone, and featuring the highest average altitude and lowest annual temperature and precipitation, was found to suffer from larger areas of severe degradation (14%).Therefore, our findings support a strong connection between degradation patterns and climatic as well as altitudinal gradients, with an increased degradation risk for high altitude areas and areas in colder and drier climatic zones. This is relevant information for pastoral management to avoid further degradation of high altitude pastures.

ALPINE-TYPE MOUNTAINS

The morphologic structure of alpinotype mountains is described. The nivation processes and foremost avalanches are the main factors of summit belt and slope belt formation. The role of glacial activity in the alpine morphogenesis is commonly exaggerated; the alpine landscapes continue their morphologic maturity and do not transfer into relics even after deglaciation.

Preferences of tourists with regard to changes of the landscape of the Tatra National Park in Slovakia

The alpine landscape of the Tatra National Park has changed significantly over the past few decades, especially as a result of the development of tourism (i.e. hotels, ski slopes) which are likely to impede the effective management of nature conservation.This study presents the results of a survey to ascertain the preferences and the perception of visitors to the Tatra National Park and its landscape. Scenarios of tourism development and landscape changes were presented to respondents verbally and by means of manipulated photos in order to visualize potential threats to the current appearance of the landscape. The data that this survey revealed and the statements made by the respondents with regard to the frequency of their trips to the National Park were combined to assess the effects of landscape changes on the recreation benefits of visitors. Furthermore, the willingness-to-pay, in terms of a hypothetical admission fee to prevent a further degradation of the ecological quality, was also ascertained.The results show that the frequency of trips is significantly reduced if one of the scenarios were to become a fact. Annual recreation benefits (measured by the consumer surplus) currently amount to approximately EUR 1,040 per person, while the loss of recreation benefits, as a consequence of further changes to the landscape considered to be unfavourable by the respondents, would amount to EUR 329 to 475 per person. In addition, visitors stated an annual willingness to pay from EUR 23 to EUR 26 to prevent further negative developments. The conclusions that were drawn refer especially to the effectiveness of management in the Tatra National Park, to the combination of revealed and stated behaviour data, and the willingness-to-pay of the visitors.

Lake core record of Grinnell Glacier dynamics during the latest Pleistocene deglaciation and the Younger Dryas, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA

Few records in the alpine landscape of western North America document the geomorphic and glaciologic response to climate change during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. While moraines can provide snapshots of glacier extent, high-resolution records of environmental response to the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, Younger Dryas cooling, and subsequent warming into the stable Holocene are rare. We describe the transition from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene using a ~17,000-yr sediment record from Swiftcurrent Lake in eastern Glacier National Park, MT, with a focus on the period from ~17 to 11ka. Total organic and inorganic carbon, grain size, and carbon/nitrogen data provide evidence for glacial retreat from the late Pleistocene into the Holocene, with the exception of a well-constrained advance during the Younger Dryas from 12.75 to 11.5ka. Increased detrital carbonate concentration in Swiftcurrent Lake sediment reflects enhanced glacial erosion and sediment transport, likely a result of a more proximal ice terminus position and a reduction in the number of alpine lakes acting as sediment sinks in the valley.

Application of archival aerial photogrammetry to quantify climate forcing of alpine landscapes

AbstractRecent and future climate change may lead to landscape changes in geomorphic processes and process rates. Such modifications are likely to be widely distributed, making their direct measurement difficult and there are almost no such measurements at decadal intervals. Aerial imagery has been acquired by many national agencies since the 1950s and significant archives remain. Unlocking the information from these data sources is important because their timescale may inform significant unresolved hypotheses regarding the impact of rapid climate change on Alpine environments. However, such photogrammetric applications are challenging because of topographic complexity (including occlusions and large elevation ranges) and variations in image texture. A complete workflow is described from raw data to the treatment and interpretation of results. This is applied to imagery of Val d'Héréns, Switzerland, a landscape containing an assemblage of glacial, periglacial, hillslope and fluvial landforms across a height range of 1800 to 3600 m from the 1960s to the present. These changes reveal important characteristics of landscape scale erosion and deposition at the decadal scale.

Commodifying snow, taming the waters. Socio-ecological niche construction in an Alpine village.

White belts of snow clad mountains all over the world each winter. Even if there is no snow, the tourism industry is able to produce the white finery at the push of the button, thereby consuming large amounts of water. Studying Damüls, a well-known ski resort in Austria’s westernmost province Vorarlberg, we can show that the development of a service sector within agro-pastoral landscapes was connected with novel water uses and massive interventions into Alpine landscapes. Human niche construction theory offers a unique avenue for studying the development of Alpine communities, but also highlights side effects accompanying the change from agrarian to tourism livelihoods. One aim of this paper is to broaden the scope of human niche construction theory. Inceptive, counteractive and relocational niche construction activities were coupled to the differentiation of actor groups. To incorporate social dynamics, indispensable for studies in environmental history, we propose the concept of socio-ecological niche construction. The paper investigates how villagers balanced resource limitations typical for an agrarian society with the differentiation of sub-niches, mediating selective forces on the population. When the valleys were industrialized, Damüls was almost given up as a permanent settlement. Then, tourists entered the stage, by and by turning the wheel of local development into a different direction. A tourism niche based on natural snow evolved from the 1930s onwards. While the socio-ecological niches of agriculture and tourism coexisted in the interwar years, this changed when ski lifts were built, embedded into a debt-based economy that made the tourism niche vulnerable to snow availability. Snow-dependency became a powerful selective force. It was mediated by the ski lift companies through a range of niche construction activities that turned water into an important resource of snowmaking systems.