The consequences of climate change in mountain areas worldwide are severe. Glaciers and snowpacks are retreating and disappearing, water regimes are changing, and snow is often replaced by rain. Climate change and the associated changes in snow and hydrology affect the characteristic mountain biodiversity that supports vital ecosystem functions and services in the mountains, communities, and societies. All these changes are amplified by increased human pressures, as is well-documented in the scientific literature and highlighted by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
The interactions between climate, mountain environments, and ecosystems are complex because mountains are crucial in shaping regional climates by producing their distinct local humidity, temperature, and wind patterns, influencing local hydrology, distribution of snowpacks, and ecosystems. We need improved and integrated models and scenarios of mountain climates, environments, and ecosystems to advance our understanding of ongoing and future changes – a precondition for knowledge-based policies, management and decision-making. Empirical evidence at the relevant scales and resolutions is needed to build and ground truth such models. Connecting
and integrating empirical evidence with integrated models constitutes a significant scientific challenge.
We will address these challenges with an interdisciplinary research program targeting accelerated environmental changes in the Scandinavian mountains, emphasising major trends, shifting seasonality, extremes, and resilience. The cutting-edge science produced by the Centre for Mountains in Transition will integrate insights and approaches
from complementary disciplines in a coordinated effort to understand better and contribute solutions that can safeguard mountains and the societies that depend on them. This will help guide sustainable and responsible human lives and livelihoods in the Scandinavian mountains and beyond.
Our primary objective is to understand better how the Scandinavian Mountain environments respond to and interact with accelerated global climate change and increased human impacts. Our specific objectives are (i) To map and explain changes in mountain system functioning for biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, land-use change, melting glaciers, reduced snow cover and altered discharge networks; (ii) To identify and quantify how weather and climate processes impact and interact with mountains from regional to local scales; (iii) To explore how climatic
change – trends, seasonality, and extremes (hazards) – cause changes in water, snow, ice, and biodiversity – leading to alterations in mountain environments and ecosystems, thereby affecting ecosystem services and benefits to people; and finally, (iv) To explore how mountains are valued and perceived and to guide stakeholders and local communities in updating and revising management plans for a safe future that builds resilience in societies in mountain areas.
