> MAB National Committees

> MAB Regional Networks

Work was carried out by more than 100 global change scientists to achieve an over-arching research strategy that incorporates activities from both the natural and social sciences communities. It was developed with Mountain Biosphere Reserves in mind but can be adapted to other similar mountain sites around the world. Phase II of the Initiative entitled GLOCHAMOST (for Global Change in Mountain Sites) involves the implementation of the research strategy in these chosen sites.

• The GLOCHAMORE Research Strategy is now available here.

Long-term environmental observations in mountain biosphere reserves: recommendations from the EU-project GLOCHAMORE.

The impacts of future climate warming are forecast to be particularly marked in cold environments, such as the alpine and nival zones of mountains. Scientists participating in the project 'Global Change in Mountain Regions' (GLOCHAMORE) have developed a strategy for detecting signals of environmental change across a network of observation sites in selected sites from UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves. In this paper, recommendations are made on long-term observation of:

• cryospheric indicators related to snow cover, glaciers, permafrost, and solifluction processes
• high mountain freshwater ecosystems and watershed hydrology
• terrestrial ecosystems, particularly mountain plant communities and soil invertebrates.

The five day event which combined a conference, workshops and field trips, was organised by the UHI Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College. It brought together over 250 delegates from 47 countries world-wide including scientists, researchers and biosphere managers working in the mountains of both industrialised and developing countries to share the results of their research and experience. This resulted in the development of a framework for long-term research on global change in mountain areas across the world.

Professor Martin Price, director of the Centre for Mountain Studies, said:
"This is a truly interdisciplinary and global conference. It covers all aspects of global change from the prehistoric past to the melting of glaciers, changes in ecosystems, and the globalisation of economies. It will not only provide fine opportunities for networking and the presentation of revealing research results but also lay a foundation for future policy-relevant research." More

To view the Perth Conference presentations
Webcast, Click "View" at the end of each session to launch the viewer.

Be patient: the viewer may take up to two minutes to begin presenting the session. To view a specific presentation use the Slide List tab to find thumbnails of all slides. Then press "Play from slide" to start the presentation. These webcasts have been made possible through a generous contribution of equipement and technical assistance from Sonic Foundry, Inc. of Madison, Wisconsin

The GLOCAHMORE project undertook its work through a series of product-oriented scientific workshops which culminated in a major science conference. Activities from both the natural and social science communities were integrated into the project.

The schedule of the four thematic workshops (WS) was as follows:

• TW1: Global Environmental and Social Monitoring, Vienna, Austria, 9-11 May 2004.
• TW2: Projecting Global Change Impacts in Mountain Biosphere Reserves, L'Aquila, Italy, 29 November-2 December 2004.
• TW3: Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resources Management, Sierra Nevada, Spain, 14-17 March 2005.
• TW4: Process Studies along Altitudinal Gradients to serve Conservation and Sustainable Development, Samedan, Switzerland, 27-30 July 2005.

Entlebuch
The 'kick-off' workshop for the GLOCHAMORE project was held in Entlebuch Biosphere Reserve in November 2003.

• Workshop report
• Workshop announcement

Published by UNESCO-MAB, 2004 As a follow-up of the International Workshop on Global Change in Mountain Biosphere Reserves held in Entlebuch Biosphere Reserve, Switzerland, from 10 - 13 November 2003 Language: English Table of Contents Chapter 1—9 Chapter 10—16 Chapter 17—22

TW4 - Samedan, Switzerland: Process Studies along Altitudinal Gradients to serve Conservation and Sustainable Development

• Final workshop report
• Annex - workshop abstracts
• Annex - Research Proposals
• Workshop agenda

TW3 - Sierra Nevada, Spain: Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resources Management

• Workshop report
• Workshop announcement

TW2 - L'Aquila, Italy: Projecting Global Change Impacts in Mountain Biosphere Reserves

• Workshop report
• Workshop announcement
  

Third Thematic Workshop: Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resources Management Sierra Nevada Biosphere Reserve, Spain 14-17 March 2005 Second Thematic Workshop: Projecting Global Change Impacts in Mountain Biosphere Reserves Gran Sasso National Park (near L'Aquila), Italy 29 November-2 December 2004 Published by UNESCO-MAB, 2005 Language: English

TW1 - Vienna, Austria: Global Environmental and Social Monitoring

• Workshop announcement
• Workshop report

Published by UNESCO-MAB, 2004 Proceedings of the First International Thematic Workshop held in Vienna, Austria 9 – 11 May 2004 Language: English (part I - part II) More

A questionnaire was devised and sent to the biosphere reserve managers in order to obtain information on the likelihood and perceived impacts of climate change in the biosphere reserves. These views and observations were represented in the final GLOCHAMORE research strategy. See below for summaries of the results:

• Questionnaire sent to the BR managers
• Questionnaire analysis - Values, Impacts and Hazards
• Questionnaire analysis - Contentious issues

The purpose of GLORIA
GLORIA establishes and maintains a world-wide long-term observation network in alpine environments. Vegetation and temperature data collected at the GLORIA sites will be used for identifying trends in species diversity and temperature. The data will be used to assess and predict losses in biodiversity and other threats to these fragile alpine ecosystems which are under accelerating climate change pressures.

The GLORIA Secretariat is closely linked to the GLOCHAMORE project as it is housed within the Institute of Ecology and Conservation Biology of the University of Vienna (UNIVIE), the project leader for GLOCHAMORE. Moreover, some of the biosphere reserves taking part in the GLOCHAMORE project are already GLORIA sites and further biosphere reserves became GLORIA sites thanks to the GLOCHAMORE project. These were Araucarias Biosphere Reserve in Chile and Huascaran Biosphere Reserve in Peru. A target region in Katunsky Biosphere Reserve is currently being established and a further two target regions in China are planned.

• Report on the Establishment of GLORIA sites in selected MAB Biosphere Reserves

The GLORIA field manual
This field manual represents state of the art sampling methods for the GLORIA's Multi-Summit Approach. It is based on the previous versions and was finalized on two GLORIA-EUROPE meetings by including fieldwork experience in 18 GLORIA target regions in 2001 and 2002. The manual provides the basic guidelines for a standardized field application of the GLORIA monitoring method. It was designed to be universally applicable in the world-wide range of alpine environments from polar to tropical latitudes.

English version, filesize: 2.2MB
Versión española, tamaño de archivo: 4.0MB
Chinese version, filesize: 3,7MB