Impacts and Risks of Global Change - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 56

adapted in many places to allow modern utilization. This is linked to the
mountain farming subsidies, which started several decades ago, but also to
the fact that Austrian mountain farms are mostly run as a part-time concern,
i.e., in combination with other economic activities, mainly in tourism.
Moreover, agricultural production, especially in the Alps, has been oriented
to high quality products, viz. the high proportion of organic farming and
regional origin certifi ed products (Bender 2010).
Despite the relatively stable situation of agriculture in Austria as
compared to that of southern Alpine countries, recent decades did see
considerable losses of cultural landscapes, leading to an expansion of
wooded areas, particularly in steep mid-slope areas of the montane zone.
Figures from the cadastre show that in the 1990s alone the wooded area
increased by 5.5% (Borsdorf and Bender 2007). Mountain forests fulfi l
many functions for humans, particularly as protective forests and for
timber production, but also as CO 2 sinks for climate protection. Forestry is
increasingly making an effort to plant mixed forests suited to the individual
location with varieties adapted to climate change. In the past, particularly
near ore and salt processing sites in eastern Austria, fast growing fi r trees
were planted as monocultures. These are now being replaced by mixed
forests. In many places, mountain forests are exposed not just to climate
stress but also to additional factors such as game damage, immissions,
pests, etc., which further increase the vulnerability of forest ecosystems to
climate change. Overall, forestry in the Austrian Alps must be considered
highly vulnerable to changes in climate (Kronberger et al. 2010).
At higher altitudes, more extensive mountain pasturing basically
encourages a rise in the forest line, which has been held down artifi cially
through grazing on land mostly cleared by burning. There are as yet no
clear indications of tree stands rising solely as a result of changes in climate
(Nicolussi et al. 2005, Wieser et al. 2009). The ecological conditions in the
treeline ecotone are too complex and the response times of subalpine forest
communities too long to draw direct conclusions (Borsdorf and Bender
2007).
Human habitat
The cultural landscape of mountain regions is unique and has a large variety
of different forms and structures. Thus, many cultural heritage sites of the
UNESCO are located in the mountains, in recent years even the immaterial
heritage has been protected by this organization. However, large cultural
regions are in danger by climate change, which affects water and electricity
supply, air and water quality. Droughts and heavy precipitations put
agriculture at risk. Mountain biosphere reserves, conceptualized as models
of sustainable development face the challenges by implementing climate