This book provides a unique, in-depth view of past, present and potential future climatic change in mountain regions, and in particular on the mechanisms which are responsible for this change. Other books which focus on environmental change in mountains focus more generally on the impacts of this change on mountain systems, rather than on the regional features of climatic change itself. The book enters into a high level of detail concerning results of international investigations which involve specialists from numerous climate-related disciplines. The book can be used in an academic and research context, for advanced graduate and doctoral students, as well as researchers working in various domains of relevance to climatic change issues. The book also has relevance in the context of future activities of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in terms of providing up-to-date knowledge of fundamental mechanisms and consequences of climatic change in mountain regions.

Climatic Change at High Elevation Sites: An Overview.- Temperature Variations During the Last Century at High Elevation Sites.- Variations of Snow Depth and Duration in the Swiss Alps over the Last 50 Years: Links to Changes in Large-Scale Climatic Forcings.- Decadal Variations in Climate Associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation.- 20th-Century Changes of Temperature in the Mountain Regions of Central Europe.- A Critical Examination of the Precipitation Records at the Pic Du Midi Observatory, Pyrenees, France.- Regional Dependency of Precipitation-Altitude Relationship in the Swiss Alps.- Climatic Change and Debris Flows in High Mountain Regions: The Case Study of the Ritigraben Torrent (Swiss Alps).- Glacial Varve Thickness and 127 Years of Instrumental Climate Data: A Comparison.- Regional Snowfall Patterns in the High, Arid Andes.- Recent Trends in Tree-Ring Records from High Elevation Sites in the Andes of Northern Patagonia.- Developing a Proxy Climate Record for the Last 300 Years in the Canadian Rockies - Some Problems and Opportunities.- A Changing Temperature Response with Elevation for Lagarostrobos Franklinii in Tasmania, Australia.- Research Strategies in Dendroecology and Dendroclimatology in Mountain Environments.- Isotope Records from Mongolian and Alpine Ice Cores as Climate Indicators.