Mt Logan in the St ELias Range in the Yukon is the highest mountain in Canada, at 5,959 m. There are no climatological instruments near mountain peaks to verify change at much higher altitudes, but other evidence indicates that the faster warming of higher elevations in the Tibetan mountains is likely happening here too.
Photo Credit: David Hik

Higher elevations are warming too, and faster

For some time studies have indicated that polar regions, especially the Arctic, is warming at a faster rate than those regions closer to the equator.

A new international study appears to indicate that a similar phenomenon is happening to layers of air, such that higher elevations are warming at a faster rate than lower elevations.

Scott Williamson was involved in the research. He is a PhD candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta with expertise in snow and ice climate feedback in the tundra (cryoshpere)

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University of Alberta PhD candidate Scott Williamson on Mt Columbia in Jasper National Park in Alberta near the boundary with British Columbia ©  John Postma

The research was published in the science journal Nature Climate Change

The researchers gathered and analyzed all data and studies on temperatures at higher elevations. The best example comes from the Tibetan plateau where they found temperatures rising over the past 50 years.  The research found that above 4000 metres temperatures have risen 75% faster than temperatures below 2000 metres.

Williamson says the warming temperatures could have major implications for flora and fauna both high up in the mountains and down below, as well as implications for cities and towns which depend on snow melt from the mountains for water throughout the summer.

He says as the higher elevations warm, there could be faster snow melt, sooner, meaning less water available at the low elevations late in the summer for both humans and wildlife dependent on such things as wetlands.

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Scott Williamson setting up a climate station in 2008 in the Ruby Range alpine tundra about 30km east of the St Elias Range. There are few weather stations at high elevations around the world. This complicates the ability to study temperature and climate trends in the mountains, but what information is available indicates warming is occurring faster at higher elevations than below 2000m © Jeffrey Kavanaugh

Also plants and animals adapted to the colder temperatures at high elevations will be pushed higher until there is nowhere left and they simply disappear.

Williamson points out that there hasn’t been a lot of study of temperatures at high elevation, and thus long term, and more complete data is lacking.

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May 2014, Williamson (and McKnight) about to be picked up from the Ruby Range after conducting routine maintenance on equipment and snow sampling. © Ellorie McKnight

He says there needs to be more instruments and study done of temperature changes in the mountains, but that this early study appears to follow an obvious trend established by many other studies, that the atmosphere and oceans are warming and changing climates.

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