Sustaining mountain agriculture in Austria
In a three-part series we documented how Austrian mountain farmers are pursuing sustainability in the face of global warming. Read the story at Pacific Standard.
Global warming takes a toll on Austrian alms
Biodiversity monitoring on the Kölblam
Science guides alpine grazing practices
Mountain pastures in Gesäuse National Park.
Dr. Andreas Bohner explains the workings of a mountaintop climate and weather station atop the Stoderzinken.
Alpine pastrues in Austria are important reservoirs of biodiversity.
Hayfields near Admont, Austria.
A plot for monitoring vegetation at the Kölblalm.
A couple of weeks ago, our reporting took us to the Gesäuse National Park, near the geographical center of Austria. High in the limestone mountains of the region, Dr. Andreas Bohner has been measuring the effects of alpine agriculture on the biodiversity and soil chemistry of the pasture lands. Several research plots have been maintained for about 10 years to show changes over time, and the research also helps guide management practices for the pastures, especially within the national park. We also visited a high-tech weather and climate monitoring site on top of the Stoderzinken, where a variety of instruments help show how climate and other factors affect mountain ecosystems. The weather station includes a gage for measuring precipitation intensity. Long-term data from the instrument will show whether intense precipitation events are increasing, as projected by most climate models. The site also features a unique water-collection station, where melted snow and rain percolate as they would naturally through the topsoil. But some of the water is then captured so it can be chemically analyzed. One ongoing research project aims to measure Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a group of more than 100 different chemicals that are released from burning coal, oil, gasoline, trash, tobacco, wood, or other organic substances.
Massive Austrian mountain landslides linked to glacier melt
Sentinel satellites offer near real-time data on Earth changes
Before and after satellite images show newly scoured landslide tracks in bright relief in the picture on the right. Photo courtesy www.sentinel.zamg.ac.at.
VIENNA — Massive, three-mile-long landslides in the mountains of central Austria in late July destroyed roads and bridges, and new satellite images provide clues that link the damage with melting glaciers.
Some of Austria’s recent large landslides started in high mountain basins, where glaciers are retreating at a record pace. The mix of rocks and silt left uncovered by the melting ice are particularly vulnerable to being mobilized by extreme rainstorms, according to researchers studying the latest data from the Sentinel satellites.
The entire ZAMG release (in German) is here: https://www.zamg.ac.at/cms/de/klima/news/neuer-umweltsatellit-zeigt-ausmass-der-muren-im-gasteiner-koetschachtal
English summary:
The European Space Agency’s Sentinel satellites have beamed back detailed before-and-after images of the scars. The slides carried material from the glacial moraine all the way to the valley, along paths nearly two miles long. The glacial rubble is susceptible to erosion because there’s no vegetation to hold the material in place — plant growth hasn’t come close to keeping pace with the retreating ice, the scientists said.
“The new satellite photos offer timely evidence that climate change is reshaping Austria’s mountains, especially the highest regions,” said Anette Bartsch, a climatologist with Austria’s federal weather and climate bureau. Mountain landslides have become increasingly common in recent years and have resulted in some of the most costly climate-related damages in Austria.
“With a systematic analysis of the satellite data, we can identify areas that are vulnerable to climate change impacts and evaluate the necessity for mitigation, including measures like catch basins, walls and even putting some areas off limits to development,” she said.
The latest satellite images were taken above the mountains surrounding Bad Gastein, a popular tourist town in the Hohen Tauern region of the Alps. Heavy thunderstorms on July 31 unleashed the massive debris flows, scouring channels that could carry future slides even farther.
Austria is one of the few countries with open, free access to the Sentinel satellite data, part of the European Copernicus Initiative. Access to the data is in the framework of an agreement between federal science and infrastructure agencies, evaluated at www.sentinel.zamg.ac.at. More information here: ->Daten der Sentinel-Erdbeobachtung-Satelliten in Österreich kostenfrei abrufbar.
Join us for a social media ecology trek in the Austrian Alps
Starting at 10 a.m. Sept. 9
Some of the best information on how global warming is reshaping the world’s mountains comes from networks of long-term ecological research sites, where scientists have documented significant changes in stream, meadow and forest ecosystems.
Establishing a long and continuous record of data from consistent locations is key to evaluating the impacts of climate change and other influences. Again and again, scientists advocate for more resources to take those measurements as the best way to help us adapt for coming changes.
This Friday, September 9, we will be in the field with an Austrian scientists who is measuring plant communities in traditional mountain pastures in and around Gesäuse National Park, near the town of Admont, Styria, with a lunch visit to the Kölblalm.
We’ll stream parts of our interview live via Twitter and Instagram, where readers can post questions or comments about global warming impacts in the Alps. We’ll pass the questions along to our scientist guide, or try to answer them from the reporting we’ve done for the project. We’ll also post a short update here on the blog after the visit.Contact us if you’d like to receive notifications of future posts.
In the Rocky Mountains, for example, long-term research at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory near Crested Butte, Colorado, has yielded a treasure trove of climate findings. The summer wildflower season is already a month longer than just a few decades ago; but birds and bugs who follow the seasons are out of synch with important food sources, according to University of Maryland Biology Professor David Inouye.
In the Alps, weather records go back even farther, and researchers have documented significant mount warming, at twice the global rate around some of the range’s highest peaks, consistent with the steady, decades-long decline of Alpine glaciers. During an intense 2015 summer heatwave, some of Austria’s glaciers melted back hundreds of feet.
Check our recent project update with photo galleries and video clips from our reporting here.
And learn a little bit about life on a high-mountain dairy farm here.
Wildflower meadow in Lower Austria.
Grazed pasture contrasts with a patch of brushy land.
An alm clearing in the Ötscher region of eastern Austria.
Mountain grasslands in Colorado.
Meadowgram.
Stand-out.
Gone to seed on the Krippenstein.
Where have all the farmers gone?
Along the Alpine Trail …
High along the Weissenbach above Strobl, in the headwaters of the Traun River, the stone wall at pasture’s edge has been there so long it’s become part of the landscape, with swirled layers of moss and granite a testament to how Austrian mountain dwellers have sculpted the high country for centuries. We discovered the wall after visiting a mountain dairy in the Postalm Region. The high plateau is one the largest contiguous grazing zones in this part of the Alps. In the winter, the pastures are downhill and crosscountry ski trails. As part of the the special reporting project on sustainable mountain agriculture supported by the Earth Journalism Network and Internews, we’ve traveled across Austria’s mountains to speak with farmers, environmentalists and scientists about the importance of preserving these cultural and natural landscapes.
Grazed pasture contrasts with a patch of brushy land.
Wildflower meadow in Lower Austria.
We also try to stop and let the landscapes touch us visually, understanding how the care by alpine farmers helps keep the land healthy, promoting biodiversity and soil stability in the face of ever-increasing severe rainstorms in the area. A few weeks ago, we tracked down Siegfried Ellmauer, formerly the offical Alm inspector of the Upper Austrian state government. For 12 years, he not only worked to sustain existing grazing allotments, but spearheaded a grassroots restoration project to revive about a dozen of the region’s highest Alms. We spent several hours interviewing Ellmauer at his mountain farm and Gasthaus above Spital am Pyhrn. In this video excerpt, he speaks about the quality of the produce from alpine agriculture, and about how there’s a need to maintain the open pastures for environmental, cultural and social regions. Politicians may pay lip service to the idea of supporting the small grazing operations, but reality looks different, as national policies seem to align more with the big-is-better theory of economics.
Many of the dairy products and meats like smoked hams and sausages are consumed right where they are made, by tourists and hungry hikers who venture into the mountains. Maintaining small operations like the Schnitzhof Alm dairy, with just a few dozen cows, is not easy in the age of globalization, but operating a cozy restaurant and deli counter is a way of spreading the word about the sustainable, local food they produce.
The Postalm combines centuries-old cheese-making tradition with modern tourism culture.
There also a strong cultural aspect to alm life. Ringing the cowbell above the table signifies that you’re buying the next round, which means the accordion player will certainly sing another song, Many of the lyrics of the ditties praise the natural virtues of the mountain landscapes — special rare flowers, crystalline rock, clean air and icy streams. When we visited the Herrnalm on the Dürrenstein Mountains in Lower Austria, we sat with this group of friends who had wandered to the Alm for an afternoon of social music and drinking locally made apple cider and wine.
The cowbells on the pastures offer a simple melody for passers-by, but they many different tones enable the herders to track individual animals through forest or patchy mountain fog.
There’s new life on the Austrian Alm
Will cheese-making give way to yoga?
In the Schnitzhof Alm dairy, workers rotate and clean wheels of fragrant cheese. After several months of aging, the product is sold in thick wedges to hungy hikers in the restaurant upstairs.
The video was shot through a wire mesh door kept closed to prevent unwanted contaminants in the cheese room.
The milk comes from 24 cows that graze moist green pastures all around. Many of of Austria’s high mountain grazing regions support a locally based micro-economy that benefits the environment and promotes the sustainability of the traditional summer pasturing practices. But not all of the Alms have been able to fight the rising economic tide of globalization and centralization. While official government policy is to promote mountain agriculture, there is also political pressure to produce at a scale that’s viable in the global economy. How to do both remains a challenge.
Mountain farms in Austria form a landxape fabric that is part of the country’s cultural heritage.
The Almtalerhaus near Grünau, Austria was once a waystation on a cattle drive and now serves as a basecamp for hikers and climbers.
The Postalm combines centuries-old cheese-making tradition with modern tourism culture.
In the easternmost trace of the Alps, the hutkeeper and herdsman of the Herrnalm builds new outdoor furniture for hikers.
From afar, the the high country clearings that serve as summer alpine pastures are visible on the lower flanks of the Dachstein Mountains in Austria.
Austria’s mountain farms and pastures are an integral part of the cultural and environmental landscape. Driving cattle up to alpine grazing meadows, called Alms, started as soon as humans began keeping cattle, and the first officially recorded mention of an Alm came in 1212, more than 800 years ago. The rapid changes of climate and global politics and economics have sent waves rippling through institutions that have existed for centuries, and the mountain pasture way of life in Austria may be endangered.
Many of the long-time herders who track their flocks over the hills say they’ve felt the changes. Spring has been coming several weeks earlier than just 20 years ago, which means driving the cattle up the mountain much earlier. That changes the timing of when workers are needed in the dairy farms, and also affects the timing of the bloom in the hay and pasture fields. In turn, those changes may affect insects and birds that also depend on finding food at a certain time.
Economically, the new world of the European Union and global free trade has marginalized the products from the Alm economy. Big feedlots can certainly produce more concentrated amounts of beef more quickly than the laborious process of fattening cattle on mountain grasses. But is that what the world really needs?
In any case, some Alms have adapted by shifting their focus to recreation. In the Krippenstein Mountains of Upper Austria, the Gjaidalm has focused on offering wellness retreats, yoga workshops and foot massages, and there’s a petting zoo, with pygmy goats and pigs. But the pastures around the hut (first tended in the Bronze Age) only see a dozen cows per year, well below the official allotment. That means the grasses aren’t being grazed enough to maintain plant diversity.
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to learn more about the changing world of Austrian Alms.
Study shows varying global warming impacts in different mountain areas
Elevation of glaciers key to future runoff
Projecting global warming impacts in mountainous regions has been difficult for researchers, as drastic contrasts in terrain over short distances challenges climate models. Now, a new study by scientists from ETH Zurich and Utrecht University shows there will be different responses in different parts of the world.
In a new study, they looked closely at the water balance of two regions; the upper Langtang valley in Nepal and Juncal region of the central Andes in Chile, which are both important watersheds for millions of people. Both areas include peaks rising over 6,000 metres and glaciers that help sustain rivers. Continue reading “Study shows varying global warming impacts in different mountain areas”
Austria’s snow is getting cleaner
A long-term study of the snowpack in Austria shows that global pollution-reduction efforts have paid off with big reductions in sulfate and nitrate concentrations. The pollutants are primarily from industrial sources and from cars and trucks and are carried to the Alps by prevailing winds. As snow and glacier ice melt, the pollutants run off into rivers and streams.
The study sites have been monitored since the 1980s and the results how that sulfate pollution has been reduced by 70 percent, while nitrate levels are down about 30 percent.
Read the entire report here: https://www.zamg.ac.at/cms/de/klima/news/langzeitstudie-am-sonnblick-gletscher-deutlich-weniger-luftschadstoffe-in-der-schneedecke
Study shows sudden warming in the European Alps
Does industrial soot play a role in the meltdown of Alpine glaciers?
By Summit Voice
With temperatures in the European Alps rising twice as fast as the global average, there’s little hope of saving some of the world’s most famous glaciers without immediate and significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
And there’s little doubt that the warming is caused by those emissions. Findings from a new study show the sudden onset of warming about 30 years ago. The study, led by researchers with the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State, offers new and compelling evidence that the Italian Alps are warming at an unprecedented rate. Continue reading “Study shows sudden warming in the European Alps”
Global Warming in the Alps 