Impacts and Risks of Global Change - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 43

The partial loss of soil by splash, rill, interrill and shallow erosion
(Govers et al. 1999, Hessel et al. 2003) is accompanied by a degradation of its
numerous ecosystem services. In addition to its performance in agriculture
and forestry, the soil provides important functions as buffer and fi lter of
pollutants from water and air, as carbon sink and as archive of natural and
cultural history. Soils in the mountain regions provide such functions in
varying degrees and take a long time to develop because of the limiting
conditions in the sometimes extreme locations. Often the soils are shallow
and more severely threatened by various morphodynamic processes (Fig.
3.5; Geitner 2007, Wiegand and Geitner 2010).
The Alpine Convention recognized the special situation of alpine
soils and the threats to their performance. It included soils as a resource
that deserves protection in the Soil Conservation Protocol and demanded
concrete conservation measures (CIPRA 1998). Tasser et al. (2005) relate
the apparent increase in soil erosion to the changes in land use as a result
of changes in the socio-economic framework within the Alpine Space.
Changes in agricultural use take the form of extensive management and
Figure 3.5. Simplified overview of process, erosion types and possible subsequent
developments of shallow erosion in high mountains (Source: Wiegand and Geitner 2010: 81).
Color image of this figure appears in the color plate section at the end of the topic.