CNH-S: Andes Bofedales and Cattle: The Impacts of Changing Hydrology and Glacial Retreat on Community Livelihoods in Peru's Cordillera Blanca

由于气候变化，山区正在发生迅速变化，而人类生计正在发生变化，对山区景观产生了进一步的影响。安第斯冰川对气候变化特别敏感，融化速度加快，通过水文变化影响下坡生态系统。依赖这些生态系统维持生计的人们也受到了影响。反过来，农民正在通过增加畜群规模和扩大牧场来改变放牧制度，这些过程对湿地产生了负面影响。该项目的更广泛影响涉及气候变化和相关的冰川衰退，这是对安第斯山脉等热带山区牧民生计的最重要威胁。在秘鲁，对水和其他山地自然资源的需求不断增长，加剧了牧民面临的威胁。在一切照旧的情况下，山区的水资源问题可能会加剧。为了解决山脉、湿地和牲畜与不断变化的环境之间的交叉问题，伙伴机构将举办一系列五个讲习班，将研究人员、社区领导人和非政府组织聚集在一起。这些讲习班将是正式报告、技术讨论和科学家和社区成员实地实习的混合体。本研究的重点是1977年被联合国教科文组织认定为生物圈保护区的Huascarán国家公园内秘鲁瓦拉斯附近的安第斯高原生态系统，该研究将对世界各地的山区产生影响。研讨会1将介绍一种基于主体的模型的新耦合，该模型使用社会经济指标和生态系统模型，该模型从遥感图像和生态采样中创建场景。第2次讲习班由一个以社区为基础的非政府组织（山区研究所）主办，将为制定模型所需的社会经济指标提供背景。工作坊3将利用工作坊1和工作坊2所确定的情景，为本地湿地影响人类生计的自然过程提供基础。工作坊4的重点是人类的影响，特别是对湿地的非本地牲畜放牧，以及这些生态系统如何应对冰川退缩的影响。最后的会议将包括整合所有以前的讲习班，涉及高海拔耦合的人类自然系统的不同组成部分，以创建一个社区知识框架，为全世界类似的山地系统提供信息。该项目采用研讨会和实地实习的方式，旨在向当地社区和机构介绍有关环境变化及其与湿地栖息地的相互作用以及对当地生计的影响的主要研究问题。这种新方法将对开展未来的研究协调网络产生影响。

Mountainous regions are undergoing rapid changes due to changing climate, while human livelihoods are shifting with further consequences for mountain landscapes. Andean glaciers are especially sensitive to climate change with accelerating melting rates influencing downslope ecosystems through hydrologic changes. The people that depend on these ecosystems for their livelihoods are also impacted. In turn, farmers are altering grazing regimes by increasing herd sizes and expanding pastures, processes that are negatively affecting wetlands. The broader impacts of this project relate to climate change and associated glacial recession, which represent the most important threats to pastoral livelihoods in tropical mountains like the Andes. In Peru, threats to pastoralists are exacerbated by growing demands for water and other mountain-based natural resources. Under business as usual scenarios, problems over water resources in mountain regions will likely intensify. To address the intersection of mountain ranges, wetlands, and cattle with changing environments, partner institutions will conduct a series of five workshops to bring researchers, community leaders and non-governmental organizations together. The workshops will be a mixture of formal presentations, technical discussions and a field-based practicum for scientists and community members. This research focuses on the high Andean ecosystems around Huaraz, Peru in Huascarán National Park, recognized as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1977, and will have implications for mountainous regions around the world. Workshop 1 will present a novel coupling of an agent-based model using socioeconomic indicators and an ecosystem model that creates scenarios from remotely sensed images and ecological sampling. Workshop 2, hosted by a community-based NGO (The Mountain Institute), will provide the background for developing socioeconomic indicators needed to inform the models. Workshop 3 will use the identified scenarios from Workshops 1 and 2 to provide the foundation of natural processes affecting human livelihood from local wetlands. Workshop 4 focuses on human impacts, specifically non-native livestock grazing on the wetlands, and how these ecosystems respond when affected by glacial retreat. A concluding meeting will encompass an integration of all previous workshops across the different components of a high elevation coupled human natural system to create a community knowledge framework that will inform similar mountain systems worldwide. By using a workshop approach with a field practicum, this project is designed to introduce local communities and institutions to the leading research questions on environmental change and interactions with wetland habitat and impacts on local livelihoods. This novel approach will have implications for conducting future research coordination networks.