Climate change will have an impact on mountains and human activities on a worldwide scale, according to a new study

A study has cautioned that climate change will have a detrimental influence on mountain landscapes and human activities worldwide by increasing the danger of hazards such as avalanches, river floods, landslides, debris flows, and lake outburst floods. The researchers stated that, as a result of climate change, mountain landscapes around the world risk becoming more dangerous to communities nearby, while their faster evolution may pose additional environmental problems.

The study, which was published in the journal PeerJ, demonstrates how complex mountain systems adapt to climate change in very different and often unexpected ways, and how these responses might influence mountain landscapes and communities. "Mountain glaciers are receding over the world as a result of global warming, affecting mountain landscapes, ecosystems, and people. These effects, however, are exceedingly variable "said Professor Jasper Knight of South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand.

"The latest assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sees all mountains as equally sensitive to climate change and responding in the same way. This method, however, is incorrect "Knight stated. The researchers discovered that mountains with snow and ice behave very differently from low-latitude mountains with little or no snow and ice. They stated that this determines how they adapt to climate and what future patterns of mountain landscape evolution we can expect.

Mountain snow and ice provide water for hundreds of millions of people worldwide, but this resource is under jeopardy due to shifting weather patterns and as mountain glaciers shrink. According to the academics, the water situation in Asia, North America, South America, and Europe will only worsen in the future. The research also demonstrates how climate change will have a negative influence on mountain scenery and human activity. A growing risk of hazards such as avalanches, river floods, landslides, debris flows, and lake outburst floods is part of this.

These are exacerbated by glacier retreat and permafrost warming. According to the researchers, Alpine ecosystems and rare species are already threatened with local extinction, and mountain slopes are becoming greener as lowland forests move to higher altitudes. "As snow and ice melt, mountain land surfaces become darker, which substantially affects their thermal balance, meaning they warm up faster than the surrounding surroundings," Knight explained. "As a result, climate change consequences are greater on mountains than anyplace else, creating a major challenge not only for mountains but also for the areas around them," the expert explained.

Climate change, according to the experts, has an impact on mountain communities and cultures. They claim that transhumance (the movement of animals from one grazing location to another in a seasonal cycle) and traditional agriculture are becoming extinct as grazing spaces diminish and water becomes scarcer. The authors of the study stated that tourism, mining, urbanisation, and commercial forestry are also displacing these traditional methods, and that mountain heritage landscapes, indigenous cultures, and knowledge are not fully investigated or respected. According to the findings, mountains should be viewed and maintained as integrated biophysical and socioecological systems that include both people and physical environments. According to the experts, this could help protect these areas from future change.

(source : AP)