NEWS
MRI photo competition
The Mountain Research Initiative is coordinating an international photography competition in conjunction with the scientific conference “Mountains of Our Future Earth”, which will be held in Perth, Scotland this October. The competition is open to everyone, from amateurs and scientists to professional photographers from all over the world.
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Data.TheThirdPole
Data.TheThirdPole is an open source geospatial database: a simple, searchable catalog of water-related datasets sourced from leading organization monitoring water in Asia. All data hosted on this site is available — with attribution to the data provider—for download in multiple formats.
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THE NETWORK
The new MRI blog is here!
The Mountain Blogs are contributed by researchers heading up mountain research networks around the world, and by researchers working in regions and on subjects that probably aren’t even on your mental map:
• Visit blogs by CIRMOUNT’s Connie Millar to get the low-down on drought, fire and “the Blob” in Western North America;
• Check out what MIREN’s Jonas Lembrechts has to say about botanical conquests in Latin America;
• Let Ralph Clark give you a glimpse of the pratically undiscovered Great Escarpment in southern Africa.
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Invitation To Link to the Women of the Mountains Social Media Outlets
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PROJECTS
Cold spots are turning hot: growing invasive species threats in mountains with climate change
Mountain areas and arctic ecosystems have many things in common: they are nearly pristine, are facing rapid climate change and are subjected to increased tourism and trade with the rest of the world. At the same time they consist of cold-adapted species, making them particularly vulnerable to pressures such as climate change and invasion by all types of organisms, including plants, animals and pathogens causing human and wildlife diseases.
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Sustainable Caucasus
A two-year project to support regional scientific networking in the Caucasus is to be launched on June 1, 2015. The project “Supporting Sustainable Mountain Development in the Caucasus (Sustainable Caucasus)” brings together researchers from scientific institutions in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russian Federation, and Turkey.
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Joint initiative for comparative biodiversity research between Alps and Caucasus
There is a joint initiative by Austrian and Swiss researchers to initiate comparative biodiversity research between the Alps and the Caucasus. In spite of being separated by 2300 km, and highly variable, species-specific time spans of independent evolution, the Austrian and the Swiss Alps have a large number of plant species in common with the Caucasus region. This grand ‘experiment’ by nature will help to understand microevolutionary trends in mountain environments.
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EVENTS
Perth III: Mountains of Our Future Earth
Perth, UK, 4-8 October 2015.
Registration is now open!
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Alpine Permafrost Session@AGU Fall Meeting 2015
Conveners: Marius Necsoiu, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI©), USA; Lin Liu, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China; Gregory B Greenwood, University of Bern and Mountain Research Initiative, Switzerland
Session abstract: Permafrost is present at high altitudes in all major mountain chains around the world, such as the Alps, Andes, Carpathians, Himalayas, Pyrenees, and Rocky Mountains. Rock glaciers are one of the most important morphological expressions of alpine permafrost.
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4th Int. Women of the Mountains Conference
Orem, UT, US, 7-9 October 2015
The second call for papers is now out.
Call for papers.
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PUBLICATIONS
New publication: Global mountain topography and the fate of montane species under climate change
Elsen, P., Tingley, M. (2015): Global mountain topography and the fate of montne species under climate change. Nature Climate Change: advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2656
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New book on the Andes: A geographical portrait
Borsdorf, Axel and Christoph Stadel 2015: The Andes. A Geographical Portrait. Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht, London: Springer. ISBN (book): 978-3-319-03529-1, (e-book): 978-3-319-03530-7.
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New publication on regional governance in mountain areas
Balsiger, J., Debarbieux, B., eds (2015):Frames on the move: Regional governance in mountain area. Environmental Science and Policy vol. 49.
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