Hotter high up: researchers prove particularly rapid climate change in the mountains

Climate change is advancing more rapidly on the roof of the world than in lower-lying regions. A new study shows that snow and glacier melt could lead to natural disasters. Photo: Daniel Prudek/Adobe Stock

On average, the climate in the mountains warms up half as fast as in the lowlands. At the same time, precipitation and snow cover are decreasing to a greater extent. This is the conclusion reached by international researchers led by the University of Portsmouth in a recently published paper in the scientific journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. The changes in temperature and humidity cause flooding, landslides and droughts. "The effects on agriculture and forestry are much more serious than for winter tourism," summarises Jakob Steiner from the university's Department of Geography and Regional Sciences, who worked on the study. Probably the biggest problem in the near future - for Styria, among others - will be the increasing drought and the associated risk of forest fires.

For the current publication, the researchers compared around 200 international studies and analysed data from different regions of the world. On average, the air temperature at high altitudes rose by 0.02 degrees per year between 1980 and 2020, while precipitation fell by one millimetre overall and snowfall by almost three millimetres per year. The Rocky Mountains and the Asian high mountains are most affected by the change. As the temperature changes, so does the humidity, and the shrinking snow cover reduces the albedo effect - the reflection of solar radiation back into the atmosphere. This in turn leads to further warming of the Earth's surface.

Devastating consequences
The global effects of altitude-dependent climate change are serious: more than a billion people are dependent on water supplies from the Himalayas. Now that the ice there is rapidly disappearing, there is a threat of flooding on the one hand and drought on the other if there is no rainfall. More precise forecasts to better mitigate possible consequences are currently difficult: "We need more measurements above 2500 metres above sea level and smaller-scale models to better understand the changes in mountain regions. In any case, we all need to do more to combat global warming," summarises the researcher.

Publication:
Nick Pepin, Martha Apple, John Knowles, Silvia Terzago, Enrico Arnone, Lorenz Hänchen, Anna Napoli, Emily Potter, Jakob Steiner, Scott N. Williamson, Bodo Ahrens, Tanmay Dhar, A. P. Dimri, Elisa Palazzi, Arathi Rameshan, Nadine Salzmann, Maria Shahgedanova, João de Deus Vidal Jr., Dino Zardi: "Elevation-dependent climate change in mountain environments", Nature Reviews Earth & Environment

Dagmar Eklaude

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