1. The ‘State of the Art’ of
Global Change Research in Mountains
An analysis of the 433 accepted abstracts
Global Change and the
World’s Mountains
Perth – Scotland – 26-30 September 2010

2. Geographical Distribution : Number of abstracts per region
Geographical Distribution 194
Europe:
North Asia: 82
America: 67
Africa: 20
Latin
America: 45
Pacific: 5
1% 5%
15%
19% Africa
Asia
Global: 20 10%
Europe
5% Global
Latin America
45%
North America
Pacific

3. Social Systems
Ecological Systems
Population
Socio/Economic Resource Use
Ecosystem
Decision
Making
Biochemistry
Services
structure & Biodiversity
Political/Institutional
Water
regimes Management
Air
Culture
Soil
Technology
Global dynamics (environmental, socio-economic, political-insitutional)
Land system dynamics
Consequences of changes in mountains on global context

4. Number of papers by category
278
150
92 34 312

5. 22% of papers:
Global environmental change ecological systems ecosystem interactions
3
10
28
Social Resource Ecological 10 41
Ecosystem
Decision
Services
Making
Use
Systems & Systems
Management
2
Africa
Asia
Europe
Global
Latin America
North America

6. 16% of papers:
Ecosystem interactions
1
2 9
14
4
Social Resource Ecological 1
Ecosystem
Decision
Services
Making
Use 37
Systems & Systems
Management
Africa
Asia
Europe
Global
Latin America
North America
Pacific

7. 9% of papers:
Social systems: decision-making/institutions
4 12
6
3
Social Resource Ecological
Ecosystem
Decision
Services
Making
Use 21
Systems & Systems
Management
Africa
Asia
Europe
Global
Latin America
North America

8. 6% of papers:
Global environmental change ecological systems ecosystem interactions and
services decision-making
6 5
Social Resource Ecological 5
Ecosystem
Decision
Services
Making
Use 10
Systems & Systems
Management
Asia
Europe
Latin America
North America

9. Some initial conclusions
• Drivers: greatest focus on global environmental change
• Primary natural science emphasis: ecosystems and
interactions within them
• Few papers on social systems consider global drivers
• Quite a lot of papers on institutions/decision-making
• Rather few papers focusing on resources/land use; more
on how changes in resources/land use drive environmental
changes
• Relatively few papers consider entire socio-ecological
systems/processes (driven by global change)
• Systems > Target > Transformation knowledge
Global Change and the
World’s Mountains
Perth – Scotland – 26-30 September 2010