Local-authority and collective forms of ownership still tend to dominate in the Alpine regions. This article concentrates on collective ownership or common property in the Alps and poses the question as to its importance with respect to the sustainable use of natural resources in the mountain regions. The concept of common property or collective ownership is explained in the first part of the a...

Hygroscopicity of the submicrometer aerosol at the high-alpine site Jungfraujoch, 3580 m a.s.l., Switzerland S. Sjogren, M. Gysel, E. Weingartner, M. R. Alfarra, J. Duplissy, J. Cozic, J. Crosier, H. Coe, and U. Baltensperger Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Science, University of Manchester, U...

Ski boots are generally important for assisting progress in ski turn technique as an interface between a skier and a ski. This study is aimed at developing a new ski boot that can improve the results of alpine ski races for Japanese players. In this paper, a new design of a ski boot that is adjusted to the features of the frame of Japanese athletes was experimentally examined. As a result, it w...

The alpine zone is comprised of habitats at elevations above treeline, and macromycetes play important ecological roles as decomposers and mycorrhizal symbionts here as elsewhere. Laccaria is an important group of ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes widely used in experimental and applied research. A systematic study of alpine Laccaria species using morphological, cultural and molecular (ribosomal D...

Bed bugs have reemerged recently as a serious and growing problem not only in North America but in many parts of the world. These insects have become the most challenging pest to control in urban environments. Residual insecticides are the most common methods used for bed bug control; however, insecticide resistance limits the efficacy of treatments. Desiccant dusts have emerged as a good optio...

Postglacial climate changes alter geographical distributions and diversity of species. Such ongoing changes often force species to migrate along the latitude/altitude. Altitudinal gradients represent assemblage of environmental, especially climatic, variable factors that influence the plant distributions. Global warming that triggered upward migrations has therefore impacted the alpine plants o...

BACKGROUND Alpine skiing and snowboarding have a substantial risk of injuries, but precise risk factor estimates are limited. Objective To determine the risk factors among skiers and snowboarders. STUDY DESIGN Case-control study. METHODS Ski patrols reported cases (N=3277) in eight major Norwegian alpine resorts. Injury type and risk factors (age, gender, nationality, skill level, equipment...

Glacial alpine landscapes are undergoing rapid transformation due to changes in climate. The loss of glacial ice mass has directly influenced hydrologic characteristics of alpine floodplains. Consequently, hyporheic sediment conditions are likely to change in the future as surface waters fed by glacial water (kryal) become groundwater dominated (krenal). Such environmental shifts may subsequent...

In order to describe grasshopper (Orthoptera: Acrididae) species composition, diversity, abundance, and density of four rangelands types, we compared the grasshopper community composition and dynamics in the rangeland of the northern slopes of the Qilian Mountains. In total, 55 grasshopper species were collected from 2007 to 2009, representing three families and six subfamilies. The subfamily O...

The biodiversity-productivity relationship is still under debate for alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau. We know little about direct and indirect effects of biotic and abiotic drivers on this relationship, especially in regard to plant functional trait diversity. Here, we examine how aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and precipitation use efficiency (PUE) respond to climate, soi...