Since the late 1990s, molecular techniques have fuelled debate about the role of Pleistocene glacial cycles in structuring contemporary avian diversity in North America. The debate is still heated; however, there is widespread agreement that the Pleistocene glacial cycles forced the repeated contraction, fragmentation, and expansion of the North American biota. These demographic processes shoul...

Titan’s enigmatic Xanadu province has been seen in some detail with instruments from the Cassini spacecraft. The region contains some of the most rugged, mountainous terrain on Titan, with relief over 2000 m. Xanadu contains evolved and integrated river channels, impact craters, and dry basins filled with smooth, radar-dark material, perhaps sediments from past lake beds. Arcuate and aligned mo...

With a unique eco-environmental system, the QinghaiTibet Plateau plays a fundamental role in safeguarding the local socioeconomic development and has an irreplaceable position in ensuring eco-environmental security in China and in the whole of Asia. Over the past 30 years, obvious climate change, predominantly global warming, has an extremely remarkable impact on the cryosphere of the plateau, ...

potential to adversely affect the recreational, aesthetic, and ecological resources of mountain streams. The ability to predict channel response to flow diversion can help project designers minimize adverse impacts and design appropriate mitigation measures. Toward this end, we use insights gained from detailed case studies of Lake Fork and Rock Creek – two diverted streams in the Uinta Mountai...

Remote sensing in areas with extreme altitude differences is particularly challenging. In high mountain areas specifically, steep slopes result in reduced ground pixel resolution and degraded quality in the DEM. Exceptionally high brightness differences can in part no longer be imaged by the sensors. Nevertheless, detailed information about mountainous regions is highly relevant: time and again...

BACKGROUND, AIM AND SCOPE Ambient air concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were determined at five elevated mountain sites on the European continent and the Atlantic Ocean. All sites can be considered remote background areas since they are situated above the timberline and they lack local emission sources of these compounds. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Average gas phase concent...

BACKGROUND Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is commonly found among people traveling above 2500 m. We investigated whether the occurrence of AMS is related to differences in individual physical fitness and BMI in subjects 11-13 years of age. METHODS This study was conducted at Xue Mountain, Taiwan (elevation of 3886 m) between June 13, 2011 and June 17, 2011. Subjects were asked to ascend from T...

Few studies have evaluated high altitude headache (HAH) and acute mountain sickness (AMS) in military populations training at moderate (1,500-2,500 m) to high altitudes (>2,500 m). In the current study, researchers interviewed active duty personnel training at Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center. Participants were asked about HAH and AMS symptoms, potential risk factors, and medicatio...

BACKGROUND Psychotic episodes during exposure to very high or extreme altitude have been frequently reported in mountain literature, but not systematically analysed and acknowledged as a distinct clinical entity. METHODS Episodes reported above 3500 m altitude with possible psychosis were collected from the lay literature and provide the basis for this observational study. Dimensional criteri...