Glacial lakes are rapidly growing in response to climate change and glacier retreat. The role of these lakes as terrestrial storage for glacial meltwater is currently unknown and not accounted for in global sea level assessments. Here, we map glacier lakes around the world using 254,795 satellite images and use scaling relations to estimate that [...]
Mountain social‐ecological systems (MtSES) are vital to humanity, providing ecosystem services to over half the planet's human population. Despite their importance, there has been no global assessment of threats to MtSES, even as they face unprecedented challenges to their sustainability. With survey data from 57 MtSES sites worldwide, we test a conceptual model of the [...]
While a group of mountain interdisciplinary scientists were exploring and discussing mountain paradoxes, the 2015 Earthquakes devastated much of Nepal. We partnered with practitioners on the ground in Nepal to explore the relationship between the mountain paradoxes and the challenges they create for disaster risk reduction in the mountains. We also learned from experiences in [...]
Jaeger et al. (2017, PNAS) find water scarcity amid abundance using human–natural system models. Through a detailed coupled human–natural system model of the Willamette River Basin in Oregon, USA, the authors identify how climate change and socioeconomic growth will alter the availability and use of water in coming decades. Results demonstrate how water scarcity varies [...]
In Yang et al. (2018, Ecosphere), the authors conduct the first synthesis across warming experiments on the Tibetan Plateau. They found that warming increased aboveground net primary production (ANPP) at sites with permafrost, but ANPP decreased with warming at non-permafrost sites. ANPP responded more negatively to warming under drier conditions, due to both annual drought [...]
AAAG special issue focused on mountains, with several Mtn Sentinels co-authors. Glacierized mountains are often referred to as our world’s water towers because glaciers both store water over time and regulate seasonal stream flow, releasing runoff during dry seasons when societies most need water. Ice loss thus has the potential to affect human societies in [...]