Altitudinal dependences of meteoclimatic conditions in the Great Alpine Region: from observations and idealized simulations to climate change projections

Mountain environments are of a great importance in our lives, as they cover about 25% of the Earth’s surface, and all the population on the Earth depends on them directly or indirectly. Fresh water is important for the survival of humans and an important part is found in mountain settings, including glaciers, lakes, rivers. Mountains provide fresh water to more than half of the world’s population, for drinking and domestic use, agriculture, industry and hydropower production. Mountains provide natural resources, they are a refuge for many species of flora and fauna, mountain environments have processes of resilience or adaptation to the negative factors of climate change. At the same time, mountain regions are characterised by complex atmospheric dynamics that generate very local effects of larger scale variations, such as global warming. Mountain ecosystems are particularly sensitive to the impacts of climate change and are being affected at a faster rate than other environments. Thus climate change is directly affecting mountain settings, but also all those who depend on them. To shed further light on this important field, my research project deals with the study of the altitudinal dependencies of meteoclimatic conditions in the Great Alpine Region, one of the highest and most extensive mountain range system in Europe where both global and local anthropic activities impact it. To this goal, in my PhD research project at first I analyzed observational data to study the true representation of the status of atmospheric variables such as precipitation: the main goal was to shed light on the relationship between precipitation changes and elevation. Secondly, I worked with high resolution numerical simulations that allow to study with greater accuracy the underlying processes associated to air masses flow over complex orography areas: two distinct but complementing research topics have been tackled, one based on developing a better understanding of the climatic role that aerosols play in complex orography areas, and the other based on investigating the expected changes in climate over the Great Alpine Region with a greater emphasis in understanding changes with altitude.