Abstract
The Andes of South America stretch from 11◦N in Venezuela and Colombia to 55◦S in Tierra del Fuego along the western margin of the continent, forming an almost continuous ~8,000 km long mountain range. More so, the maximum elevations of all South American countries through which the Andes extend all surpass 5000 m a.s.l. Due to their unique topography, the Andes interact strongly with large-scale atmospheric circulation, creating an exceptional variety of environmental conditions and hydroclimatic regimes. An equally diverse cryosphere sits on this assorted landscape, including a vast snow cover, mountain glaciers and ice caps, rock glaciers and mountain permafrost.
Despite the mounting evidence of a dwindling cryosphere worldwide, a clear understanding of recent changes, current state, and future projections of the main components of the Cryosphere in the South American Andes is lacking. What are the recent trends in these components and how do climatic and non-climatic factors drive present-day and future changes? What are the latest methodological advances and current limitations to track the variability in the mountain Cryosphere? How does the variability in meltwater originating in the high Andean Mountains impact downstream ecosystems and socio-economic activities? What cryosphere-related geo-hazards will affect the human population living in proximity to the Andean Mountains? What adaptation strategies are needed to ensure livelihoods in areas that suffer from the impacts of climatic variability?
This Research Topic should address the state of the art, knowledge gaps and remaining challenges to be able to answer these questions. It should also propose adaptation and mitigation strategies to deal with anticipated change. More so, it should represent a significant step forward to a comprehensive view of climate change effects on the Andean Cryosphere since the instrumental era up to the end of the 21st Century and the underlying processes.
We welcome original research and systematic, policy and practice review articles, policy briefs, perspectives and data reports from continental to site-specific scales, including remote sensing observations, numerical modelling and future projections, analyses of historic and contemporary records, proxy data, or a combination thereof. In addition, we encourage submissions from leading early-career and female scientists. In doing so, we aim to foster multinational collaboration and seek gender balance in cryospheric science research.