Pushing Climate Change Science to the Roof of the World

Abstract

The National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition is a multidisciplinary project dedicated to understanding climate change and its impacts, improving climate predictions, and providing a framework for future research in mountain environments. This issue of One Earth offers a first look at the science emerging from the expedition. 2019 Everest Expedition scientific disciplines (with institutions involved in field sampling and/or analyses), sub-disciplines, and interdisciplinary interactions.

Mt. Everest’s highest glacier is a sentinel for accelerating ice loss

“…To fill some of these knowledge gaps National Geographic and Rolex's Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition mounted in April/May 2019 the most comprehensive scientific investigation of the Nepalese side of Mt. Everest thus far undertaken, including studies in biology, geology, glaciology, meteorology, and mapping 4 . This expedition resulted in (Fig.…”

Estimating biodiversity across the tree of life on Mount Everest’s southern flank with environmental DNA

“…In our high-alpine case, each water body sampled has both an upstream watershed catchment and a much broader “windshed,” from which aeolian transport may introduce additional organic material such as leaves, pollen, and other windborne debris. The Global Observation Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA) network—including the GLORIA sites set up during the 2019 Everest Expedition ( Mayewski et al., 2020 )—is one such effort to standardize long-term vegetation survey protocols in alpine environments ( GLORIA-Coordination, 2015 ). Eventually, it will be possible to compare vegetation survey results from the Mt.…”

“…Hopefully, this study will provide the baseline data with which future sequences can be compared and built upon, along with information for refining sequencing, bioinformatics methods, and marker specificity in a more targeted approach. (Mayewski et al, 2020). Ten sampling sites for capturing eDNA were selected from alpine lakes and streams between 4,500 m and 5,500 m within four sub-watersheds feeding into the Dudh Kosi River on the southern flank of the Everest massif (Figure 1).…”

Direct observations of a Mt Everest snowstorm from the world's highest surface‐based radar observations

“…In April and May 2019, National Geographic and Rolex's Perpetual Planet Expedition to Mt Everest (hereafter 2019 Everest Expedition) undertook the most comprehensive science expedition to the Khumbu (Mt Everest) region and included teams of scientists investigating a range of topics, including glacier change, upward shifts in ecosystems, black carbon deposition on glacier surfaces and snow/ice/water chemistry (Mayewski et al ., 2020). As the highest mountain on Earth and the heart of the Himalayan water tower supplying water to hundreds of millions of people (Pritchard, 2019; Immerzeel et al ., 2020), the rate and impacts of climate change on Mt Everest (known in Nepal and China as Sagarmatha and Qomolangma , respectively) are of tremendous symbolic and practical significance.…”