About CIRCLE MOUNTAIN
CIRCLE-MOUNTAIN is a geographical group in the frame of CIRCLE ERA-Net. It addresses issues of common interest to countries with Mountainous areas. It aims at creating a Mountain research community network through collaborative research projects on Climate Change Impact Research, with the objective to bring the results of this research to policy and decision-makers.
CIRCLE MOUNTAIN call
The first CIRCLE-MOUNTAIN joint call is dedicated to climate change impacts and response in mountainous areas. A total budget of 2,1 M€ provided by research funders from Austria, France, Greece, Hungary, Spain, Sweden and Turkey is available.
A Mountain common call within CIRCLE: why and how?
Mountains are an important part of the global system. Because of their vertical extent, their climates change with elevation and thus differ from those in adjacent lowland areas. Their verticality also generates habitat and species diversity over short horizontal distances. Human societies – not only within the mountains but also beyond them – exploit the diversity of resources available in and around mountainous areas, but are also exposed to the unique hazards deriving in these areas (Björnson-Gurung, 2005).
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007), mountainous areas, already vulnerable to climate variability, will be mainly negatively affected from future impacts of climate change: glacier retreat, reduced snow cover and winter tourism, and extensive species losses.
Climate change in countries with mountainous areas will face glacier retreat, reduced snow cover and winter tourism, and extensive species losses (in some areas up to 60% under high emissions scenarios by 2080)[1].
With regard to changes in snow, ice and frozen ground (including permafrost), there is high confidence that natural systems are affected. Examples are:
- enlargement and increased numbers of glacial lakes;
- increasing ground instability in permafrost regions, and rock avalanches in mountainous areas (slope stability);
Also settlements in mountainous areas are at enhanced risk of glacier lake outburst floods caused by melting glaciers.
The lower elevation of permafrost is likely to rise by several hundred metres. Rising temperatures and melting permafrost will destabilise mountain walls and increase the frequency of rock falls, threatening mountain valleys (Gruber et al., 2004).
The IPCC (2007) documented for the first time wide ranging impacts of changes in current climate such as “retreating glaciers, longer growing seasons, shifts of species ranges, and health impacts due to heat waves. The observed changes described above are consistent with those projected for future climate change” (Part WGII-AR4 of the IPCC document).
Finally the IPCC stressed the need to promptly conduct impact studies and implement “proactive climate change risk management adaptation plans.”
These impacts do not know any political boundaries, but potential answers are elaborated by national and/or regional decision and policy makers assisted by national scientific programmes. CIRCLE offers first a unique opportunity to share knowledge on impacts based on advanced modelling and various scenarios. A step further is to launch an international common call, which could be considered as a pilot operation, within CIRCLE and for the Mountain community. Lessons learnt both in terms of science and organization (two joint call were already launched in the Mediterranean and Nordic group), will allow to further refine procedures on how such common calls can be launched and managed, to be as efficient as possible.
Exchanges on scientific and organizational topics were initiated during a first meeting held in Stockholm, back to back with the Annual Progress Meeting;and were refined during the first semester of 2009. A dedicated workshop held in Vienna (May 5-6, 2009) allowed to converge on a common theme: Climate Changen impacts and response options in mountainous areas. The call will be launched on September 22nd 2009. A two stage evaluation process is considered: scientific evaluations will be performed and ranked by experts selected from within a pool of international experts, while funding agencies will then have to decide taking into account scientific ranking, funding availability and cross-financing capacities.
[1] IPCC Report 2007 – WGII 12.4, SPM
Preannouncement CIRCLE Mountain Call
Preannouncement CIRCLE Mountain call (PDF-Download, 95 K)