Integrated approaches are needed to understand and respond to changes in tropical mountain ecosystems and communities brought about by receding glaciers and changes in land use.
Andes
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Past Climate Change Affected Mountain Building in the Andes
Increased glaciation in the North Patagonian Andes may have influenced tectonic dynamics over the past 7 million years, suggesting a connection between climate change and mountain-building processes.
Posted inNews
Vicuña Poop Nourishes “Dung Gardens” High in the Andes
The excrement delivers nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, kick-starting islands of vegetation at the edge of the cryosphere.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Structural Style Controls Crustal Fluid Circulation in Andes
Variations in hot spring geochemistry from adjacent mountain ranges with different styles of faulting highlight the influence of crustal-scale structures on circulating fluids in the Peruvian Andes.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
What Controlled the Growth of the Southern Central Andes?
Flat-slab subduction appears to have played a minor role in the growth of the Southern Central Andes, with evidence for eastward migrating deformation.
Posted inNews
Amazon Fires Contribute to Andean Glacier Melting
New research finds that black carbon emissions produced by fires in the Amazon cause glaciers in the Andes to absorb more sunlight and melt more.
Posted inNews
Microbes Spotted on Blades of Ice High in the Andes
Researchers discover microbial life on ice spires known as penitentes on the arid, sunlight-blasted upper reaches of Llullaillaco, one of the best earthly analogues for Mars.
Posted inNews
After a Glacier Retreats, Plants Thrive Thanks to Phosphorus
Grasses, small flowers, and mosses colonize glacial till in the Peruvian Andes when researchers apply a phosphorus fertilizer, an ecological surprise with implications for carbon sequestration.
Posted inNews
Birds Ignore Volcano Blast, Puzzle Scientists
When a nearby volcano unexpectedly erupted in the midst of a behavioral study of Andean condors in Argentina, the researchers scrambled to observe disruption to condors' lives. Oddly, there was none.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Peruvian Andes Helped to Cool Eastern Equatorial Pacific
Scientists investigate the role of the Peruvian Andes on climate variability.