Despite much progress, many questions remain regarding the potential dynamic coupling between atmospheric and lithospheric processes in the long-term evolution of mountain belts. As a complement to recent efforts to discover the interrelationships among climate, topography, erosion, and rock deformation under conditions of mass-flux steady state, we explore orogen response to changes in climate...

BACKGROUND Despite its largely mountainous terrain for which this Himalayan country is a popular tourist destination, Nepal is now endemic for five major vector-borne diseases (VBDs), namely malaria, lymphatic filariasis, Japanese encephalitis, visceral leishmaniasis and dengue fever. There is increasing evidence about the impacts of climate change on VBDs especially in tropical highlands and t...

Cold air drainage and pooling occur in many mountain valleys, especially at night and during winter. Local climate regimes associated with frequent cold air pooling have substantial impacts on species phenology, distribution and diversity. However, little is known about how the degree and frequency of cold air drainage and pooling will respond to a changing climate. Evidence suggests that, beca...

Understanding the potential of animals to immediately respond to changing temperatures is imperative for predicting the effects of climate change on biodiversity. Ectothermic animals, such as insects, use behavioural thermoregulation to keep their body temperature within suitable limits. It may be particularly important at warm margins of species occurrence, where populations are sensitive to i...

In this paper the temperature time series of three Slovak mountain stations and one Slovak lowland station are analyzed from the point of view of their warmer periods. These warmer periods are analysed by an analogue method. Selected periods (warmer summer and warmer winter seasons) are characterized by air temperature as well as by precipitation, humidity and some other variables. In the secon...

Recent global-scale assessments such as the 5th Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have provided evidence of the rapid changes to the high-mountain cryosphere due to climate change [1,2]. Glaciers, recognized as indicators or ‘thermometers’ of climate change, have been receding worldwide over the past century, and many glaciers are likely to disappea...

In many instances, snow cover and duration are a major controlling factor on a range of environmental systems in mountain regions. When assessing the impacts of climatic change on mountain ecosystems and river basins whose origin lie in the Alps, one of the key controls on such systems will reside in changes in snow amount and duration. At present, regional climate models or statistical downsca...

Acquisition of nearly complete coverage of Thematic Mapper data for the central Andes between about 15’s to 34’s has stimulated a comprehensive and unprecedented study of the interaction of tectonics and climate in a young and actively developing major continental mountain belt. The paper briefly reviews the current state of our synoptic mapping of key physiographic, tectonic and climatic indic...

palynological analyses from exposed palaeolacustrine deposits located at the flanks of damavand volcano, in the central alborzmountains in northern iran, provide a broad idea of the temporal variation of vegetation according to climate changes during a rangeof limited time intervals during the quaternary period. this research reveals that the regional vegetation of the study area had been asemi...

The Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) is a mountain system of extremes with great influence over the Asian continent. The system stretches 3,500 km over eight countries, from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east. It is the world’s largest and highest mountain system, with more than 30 peaks measuring over 7,600 m. It is also the youngest mountain system on Earth and still tectonically active...