Collaborative Research on Elevation-Dependent Climate Change in the Peruvian Andes

Funding disclosure: Center for Advancement of Research and Scholarship, Bridgewater State U.

Abstract

Student-centered opportunities for inter-institutional and international engagement can help prepare future leaders to respond to risks of increasingly extreme and unusual climate conditions, particularly by experiencing and sharing ideas as a globally connected community. Our goal is to foster an international interinstitutional partnership to study elevation-dependent climate change in the Peruvian Andes. Faculty-led peer-to-peer student field experiences create opportunities and reveal realities that spur conversations for enacting more equitable solutions tuned to local and global processes, while respecting the experiences of residents. Topography in mountain regions globally induces strong gradients that cause myriad responses of human and biophysical processes forced by climate disruptions.  This project leverages maturing research collaborations between students and faculty at Santiago Antunez de Mayolo National University (UNASAM) in Huaraz, Peru, Bridgewater State University (BSU) in Massachusetts, and The Ohio State University (OSU). We report on field techniques and evidence from a low-cost sensor network pointing to elevation-dependent warming and shifting hydroclimate in the Peruvian Andes. Furthermore, we compiled results from interviews with urban and rural young people and summarize potential solutions to water governance challenges and climate anxiety.