eco.mont – Journal on Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management, Vol. 14 / No. 2

“eco.mont – Journal of Protected Mountain Areas Research and Management” was founded as a joint initiative of the Alpine Network of Protected Areas (ALPARC), the International Scientific Committee on Research in the Alps (ISCAR), the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Innsbruck. “eco.mont” offers a platform specifically for scientists and practitioners working in and on protected mountain areas in Europe and overseas. Target audiences of the journal are scientists from all related disciplines, managers of protected areas and an interested public including practitioners, visitors, teachers, etc.“eco.mont” is available by open access under CC BY-NC-ND-Licence from the Austrian Academy Press and in a printed version from Innsbruck University Press.

Alpine protected areas play a key role in biodiversity conservation, but also in monitoring species and habitats. Since its first issue, eco.mont has published articles on long-term monitoring programmes in different areas of the Alps. In this issue 17 authors present the conceptual framework and a summary of the results of the first five years of a long-term monitoring programme of terrestrial and aquatic alpine biota in the Alps (Austria, Italy and Switzerland). Another long-term monitoring study takes us to the Macun Lakes in the Swiss National Park which started in 2001. Further studies took place in the semi-arid North African Nador Mountains; to the Caucasus and the effects of landforms and climate on vegetation dynamics; to Lake Paiku in Mount Qomolangma National Nature Reserve in Tibet, China, and its community structure and diversity of soil nematodes at 12 selected sites; and to western Nepal and its avifaunal diversity.