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of runoff regimes (Ellenrieder et al. 2007, Braun and Weber 2007, Hagg
et al. 2007). In dry seasons, this may lead to severe water shortage due
to exhausted water stores with feedbacks to other resources, e.g., hydro
power (IPCC 2008). Xu et al. (2009) discuss how the cascading effects of
rising temperatures and impacts on the cryosphere affect “water availability
(amounts, seasonality), biodiversity (endemic species, predator-prey
relations), ecosystem boundary shifts (tree-line movements, high-elevation
ecosystem changes), and global feedbacks (monsoonal shifts, loss of soil
carbon).”
Fragile and sensitive and often endemic mountain ecosystems with
their exceptionally high biodiversity (Grabherr et al. 2005) are particularly
affected by direct and cascading effects of rising temperatures. The expected
upward migration with the entailing shrinkage of available area per ecotone
will lead to an intensifi ed encroachment and competition between species.
Together with the high degree of adeptness of mountain ecosystems and
their dependence on temperatures and melt water this will lead to species
loss (Grabherr et al. 2004). The impacts on mountain ecosystems will have
a profound knock-on effects on mountain communities.
Impacts of climate change on mountain societies
In the same way as a high degree of adaptation is required from mountain
fl ora and fauna in order to occupy their respective niches in a marginal
ecosystem, land-use in marginal areas for human habitation is highly
adapted (Stadel 1991). This particular vulnerability of mountain regions
to impacts of Global Climate Change represents a bottleneck that affects
human-environment systems almost everywhere. Due to limited utilizable
land there are rather restricted alternatives to the specialized economic
situation.
A common trait among the enormous cultural diversity of mountain
societies around the world is that they are highly specialized and adapted to
the harsh reality of their natural environment. Some proponents of a vertical
control on the formation of mountain cultures (Brush 1977, Webster 1971,
Forman 1978) argue that ecological zonation leads to a specifi c resource
exploitation strategy that in turn determines cultural expressions of a
society. Others accept environmental constrains (low-yield, fragility) and
vertical zonation as playing a major role but not as ultimately determining
factor in mountain cultures (Guillet et al. 1983). Clearly though verticality
and ecological zonation as well as low productivity, considerable hazard
potential and mobility constraints inform strategies of environmental
adaptation and resource exploitation. The latter can range from exploitation
of one vertical zone to increasing exchange and supplementation from other
zones (Brush 1977, Werge 1979). Alpwirtschaft, common throughout the
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