Journal: eco.mont: Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management

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Innsbruck University Press

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2073-106X
2073-1558

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Publications1 - 8 of 8
  • Lessons learnt from a monitoring endeavour in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Entlebuch
    Item type: Journal Article
    Knaus, Florian (2013)
    eco.mont: Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management
    Monitoring is a key activity in biosphere reserves and other parks. It is often used asa basis for evaluating the development of a reserve and the success of the protectedarea management. Monitoring activities hold many pitfalls, as shown by resultsfrom a project in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Entlebuch. Creating a causallink between management activities and monitoring results is one major challenge.Additional difficulties arise from often used non-systematic data originating fromexternal sources. Embedding the available data in a simple conceptual model thatlinks aims and key system factors with sustainability indicators could alleviate someof the problems encountered.
  • Use of protected areas for freshwater biomonitoring – case studies in Switzerland
    Item type: Journal Article
    Robinson, Christopher T.; Doering, Michael; Seelen, Laura (2011)
    eco.mont: Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management
    The rapidity at which global landscapes are being transformed by environmental change has revived the importance of biological monitoring. Protected areas harbour some of the most biodiverse assemblages on the planet, typically show the least historical impacts from humans and likely represent areas showing natural patterns, process dynamics and fluctuations that can be compared with areas more directly impacted by humans, especially as the human population grows. This paper provides examples of different biomonitoring programmes in three protected areas in Switzerland, ranging from a large experimental flow program and recent land annex in the Swiss National Park, to a historical analysis of a designated floodplain of national importance. The data (1999 – present) from the experimental flood study have documented substantial changes in biota that have occurred 7–10 years after the initial flood results as the system enters new ecological states. Monitoring of the land annex in the national park since 2000 has allowed documentation of temporal shifts in physico-chemistry and diatoms that were related to environmental changes in Alpine landscapes. The analysis of historical photo’s of the protected floodplain showed the effects of earlier impacts on floodplain structure and function that are evident today. The results demonstrate the kinds of data that can be generated from biomonitoring programmes with different objectives and goals and how these data can be used to understand eco-evolutionary and ecosystem processes better in the face of rapid landscape transformation.
  • Local plant species replace initially sown species on roadsides in the Swiss National Park
    Item type: Journal Article
    Güsewell, Sabine; Klötzli, Frank (2012)
    eco.mont: Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management
    Protected areas in the Alps are dissected by high-traffic roads for tourist access and transit. Road construction leaves disturbed areas with open soil, which may serve as starting points for the invasion of alien plants or ruderal lowland plants into the protected mountain habitats. In the 1960s, a transit road was widened in the Swiss National Park (SNP) and disturbed roadsides were sown with mixtures of grassland species. Roadside development and vegetation dynamics in the adjacent subalpine pine (Pinus mugo) forest were monitored in permanent plots from 1969 till 2010. Over the 42-year monitoring period, the sown species disappeared progressively and were replaced by species from naturally disturbed areas as well as by forest species. A standard seed mixture and native seeds introduced with local hay developed similarly. Sown species did not expand into the natural habitats and no alien species colonized the roadsides, despite the long-term persistence of open soil. The impact of roadsides on the local flora was therefore minimal. Ecological indicator values suggest that the development of roadsides in the SNP was determined by harsh conditions resulting from a continental subalpine climate and poorly developed soils on dolomite. Therefore, the developments observed in the SNP and the proposed low impact of roadsides on the natural vegetation may not hold for other Alpine regions with different geology and a more oceanic climate.
  • The scientific councils of Alpine protected areas: an overview and analysis of their contribution to linking science and management
    Item type: Journal Article
    Arpin, Isabelle; Ronsin, Gaëlle; Scheurer, Thomas; et al. (2016)
    eco.mont: Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management
    There are numerous protected areas (PAs) within the Alpine Arc. PA practitioners strongly rely on science to gain legitimacy and address complex issues. To this end they establish scientific councils (SCs), a scientific department, or both. Drawing on Alpine and French surveys and an international workshop organized in Chambéry (France) in June 2015, this article gives an overview of SCs in Alpine PAs. It shows that especially France and Switzerland have a high number of SCs and that SCs are highly diverse in their composition, organization, activities and formation. It discusses the capacity of SCs to bring useful (i. e. credible, legitimate and salient) science to PAs and compares them with other ways of linking scientists and PA practitioners. More understanding is needed of how PAs combine different institutional frameworks to engage in boundary science to better grasp the functioning and specific assets and limitations of SCs.
  • Using drones as a monitoring tool to detect evidence of winter sports activities in a protected mountain area
    Item type: Journal Article
    Weber, Stefan; Knaus, Florian (2017)
    eco.mont: Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management
    The capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) is a mountain grouse species listed in the Red Lists of Switzerland and other countries of Europe. As a consequence of its conservation status, human activities are restricted in most of its remaining habitats. One sub-population of the capercaillie is located in the Entlebuch UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The margins of one of its territories are increasingly used by snowshoe hikers and ski tourers at the capercaillie’s most vulnerable time, during winter. In order to identify and monitor possible interferences, we tested whether drones can help to detect snowshoe and ski tourer tracks in the winter landscape and whether there is any reaction of wildlife to the drones. Results indicate that certain environmental conditions are needed to carry out accurate drone flights, but that with optimal technical and aeronautical settings, it is possible to gain aerial images that allow winter activities by humans to be identified, and even quantified. No disturbances to wildlife were identified. The findings indicate that drones can be used as a low-cost monitoring tool for detecting human winter activities in remote places, which represent a fast-growing threat to wildlife in mountain areas.
  • Wilderness at the centre – The new exhibition at the National Park Centre in Zernez
    Item type: Journal Article
    Lozza, Hans (2025)
    eco.mont: Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management
    The Swiss National Park (SNP) was founded in 1914 with the aims of protecting a piece of Alpine nature from human intervention and documenting its natural development. This extraordinary rewilding experiment required intensive public relations work from the outset, as the term wilderness did not and does not necessarily have positive associations among the local Alpine population. In order to make the ecological significance of wilderness accessible to the general public in an attractive way, in 2019 the SNP decided to create an extensive exhibition on the topic of wilderness at the National Park Centre in Zernez. Five years passed between the initial idea and the final installation of the new permanent exhibition, involving many phases of development and hurdles to overcome. This article documents the approach, planning and implementation of this important project for the SNP, which was officially opened to the public on 3 June 2023.
  • Long-term Biomonitoring of Alpine Waters in the Swiss National Park
    Item type: Journal Article
    Robinson, Christopher T.; Oertli, Beat (2009)
    eco.mont: Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management
    This paper summarizes the initial results from the long-term monitoring program of running and standing waters in a high elevation cirque landscape (Macun Lakes) in the Swiss National Park. The region comprises two contrasting basins with different water sources, a glacier-fed basin and a precipitation-fed basin. Monitoring encompasses annual measures of physico-chemistry of the waters along with samples of macroinvertebrates in midsummer. Monitoring was initiated in 2001 when the area was annexed to the park. Preliminary results indicate the high sensitivity of alpine waters and biota to changes in climate. Results from the stream measures suggest a shift in physico-chemistry (warmer waters, decreases in nitrogen constituents) and zoobenthos (taxa and density decreases) over time that reflected the differences and changes in water source in each basin. Results from the pond monitoring showed the rapid response of these small water bodies to alterations in air temperature and pluviometry. The pond data also demonstrated a strong spatial heterogeneity between ponds in both physico-chemistry and macroinvertebrate composition. The monitoring of both streams and ponds provides a holistic picture of abiotic and biotic changes of alpine waters to landscape and climate change.
  • History of Hohe Tauern National Park: a case in point of use and protection
    Item type: Journal Article
    Kupper, Patrick; Hasenöhrl, Ute; Stöger, Georg; et al. (2014)
    eco.mont: Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management
    In Austria, Hohe Tauern National Park occupies a model position. Between 1981 and 1992, the federal states of Carinthia, Salzburg and Tyrol established the first Austrian national park as Hohe Tauern National Park (NP). If we consider a larger spatial level, however, a completely different picture emerges and the pioneer park turns into a latecomer. All neighbouring countries have considerably older NPs. The Swiss NP, the first NP within the Alpine Arc was established in the 1910s, around 70 years before Hohe Tauern NP. Had the people of Carinthia, Salzburg and Tyrol and all Austrians overlooked the emergence of NPs for decades? Did they care less about conservation than their neighbours? Or did they simply believe they could do without the internationally acclaimed instrument of a NP? As we will demonstrate below, such assumptions can definitely be refuted. All the same, there is no simple explanation, neither for the long delay nor for the eventual establishment of Hohe Tauern NP. Instead a complex bundle of factors emerges. The analysis is based on research done for our book Geschichte des Nationalparks Hohe Tauern, where you can also find detailed references for the statements made below (Kupper & Wöbse 2013).
Publications1 - 8 of 8