Editing Mountain (section)

===Climate change===
Mountain environments are particularly sensitive to anthropogenic climate change and are currently undergoing alterations unprecedented in last 10,000 years.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Knight |first=Jasper |date=24 October 2022 |title=Scientists' warning of the impacts of climate change on mountains |journal=[[PeerJ]] |volume=10 |pages=e14253 |doi=10.7717/peerj.14253 |pmc=9610668 |pmid=36312749 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The effect of global warming on mountain regions (relative to lowlands) is still an active area of study. Observational studies show that highlands are warming faster than nearby lowlands, but when compared globally, the effect disappears.<ref name="Pepin">{{Cite journal |last=Pepin |first=N. C. |last2=Arnone |first2=E. |last3=Gobiet |first3=A. |last4=Haslinger |first4=K. |display-authors=et al |year=2022 |title=Climate Changes and Their Elevational Patterns in the Mountains of the World |url=https://boris.unibe.ch/169026/ |journal=Reviews of Geophysics |volume=60 |issue=1 |bibcode=2022RvGeo..6000730P |doi=10.1029/2020RG000730 |s2cid=247008935 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2318/1842344}}</ref> Precipitation in highland areas is not increasing as quickly as in lowland areas.<ref name="Pepin" /> [[Climate modeling]] give mixed signals about whether a particular highland area will have increased or decreased precipitation.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Derouin |first=Sarah |date=7 November 2023 |title=Carbon Dioxide's Effect on Mountain Climate Systems |url=https://eos.org/research-spotlights/carbon-dioxides-effect-on-mountain-climate-systems |website=Eos}}</ref>

Climate change has started to affect the physical and ecological systems of mountains. In recent decades mountain ice caps and glaciers have experienced accelerating ice loss.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pelto |first=Mauri |title=Recent Climate Change Impacts on Mountain Glaciers |publisher=Wiley |year=2016 |isbn=9781119068143}}</ref> The melting of the glaciers, permafrost and snow has caused underlying surfaces to become increasingly unstable. Landslip hazards have increased in both number and magnitude due to climate change.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Deline |first=Philip |title=Snow and Ice-Related Hazards, Risks, and Disasters |last2=Gruber |first2=Stephan |last3=Amann |first3=Florian |last4=Bodin |first4=Xavier |publisher=Elsevier |year=2021 |isbn=9780128171295 |editor-last=Haeberli |editor-first=Wilfried |edition=2nd |series=Hazards and Disasters |pages=501–540 |chapter=Ice loss from glaciers and permafrost and related slope instability in high-mountain regions |doi=10.1016/B978-0-12-817129-5.00015-9 |display-authors=et al |editor-last2=Whiteman |editor-first2=Colin |s2cid=234301790}}</ref> Patterns of river discharge will also be significantly affected by climate change, which in turn will have significant impacts on communities that rely on water fed from alpine sources. Nearly half of mountain areas provide essential or supportive water resources for mainly urban populations,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Viviroli |first=D. |last2=Kummu |first2=M. |last3=Meybeck |first3=M. |last4=Kallio |first4=M. |last5=Wada |first5=Y. |year=2020 |title=Increasing dependence of lowland populations on mountain water resources |journal=Nature Sustainability |volume=3 |issue=11 |pages=917–928 |bibcode=2020NatSu...3..917V |doi=10.1038/s41893-020-0559-9 |s2cid=220375949}}</ref> in particular during the dry season and in semiarid areas such as in central Asia.

Alpine ecosystems can be particularly climatically sensitive. Many mid-latitude mountains act as cold climate refugia, with the ecosystems occupying small environmental niches. As well as the direct influence that the change in climate can have on an ecosystem, there is also the indirect one on the soils from changes in stability and soil development.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chersich |first=S |last2=Rejšek |first2=K |last3=Vranová |first3=V. |last4=Bordoni |first4=M. |last5=Meisina |first5=C. |year=2015 |title=Climate change impacts on the Alpine ecosystem: an overview with focus on the soil |journal=J. For. Sci. |volume=61 |issue=11 |pages=496–514 |doi=10.17221/47/2015-JFS |doi-access=free}}</ref>