Baekdudaegan is a protected mountain range that spans 1,400 km across the Korean Peninsula and serves as a hub of biodiversity and cultural heritage. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of research insights into this complex mountain ecosystem through bibliometric analysis and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling approaches using metadata from 165 scholarly publications sourced from the Web of Science (WoS) core collection. We observed a discernible upward trend in Baekdudaegan-related literature, with a notable surge in scholarly interest post2017, primarily from institutions such as the Baekdudaegan National Arboretum and the Korea National Arboretum. According to WoS categories, the examined research was dominated by plant science, ecology and environmental science clusters. Employing the LDA model to the corpus of texts extracted from keywords and abstracts of each observed literature, we identified six principal research topics: biochemical pathways, forest ecosystem dynamics, genomic taxonomy, seedling dynamics, biodiversity conservation and climate change. Finally, we visualized the keyword network and LDA-trained word cloud topics. The findings of this study enhance a deeper understanding of Baekdudaegan Mountains research, offering valuable insights for researchers and policymakers. This study serves as a resource for future investigations and informed decision-making regarding the sustainable management of mountain ecosystems. [For supplement see https://austriaca.at/Dhakal_et_al.xlsx]

Schlagworte: Baekdudaegan, Biodiversity, Latent Dirichlet Allocation, Sustainable development goals, text mining

The World Network of Mountain Biosphere Reserves (WNMBR) was established in December 2021, making it one of the newest of the six thematic networks of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program. The aim of the network, which currently consists of just over 80 mountain biosphere reserves, is continuously to support biosphere reserves in mountain regions through research, strategic partnerships and cooperation, innovative management practices and knowledge-sharing. The WNMBR is coordinated by the MAB Secretariat at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and a joint technical secretariat run by the Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) and the Valles de Omaña y Luna Biosphere Reserve (Spain).

Schlagworte: Mountains, Biosphere Reserves, network, knowledge-sharing

The Hohe Tauern National Park (HTNP) is Austria’s largest (1,856 km²) and oldest (1981) national park with some of the highest peaks in the Eastern Alps. Some 19% of the present national park was covered by glaciers during the Little Ice Age maximum circa ad 1850. One third of this area is still covered by glaciers. This paper presents a short overview of the long glaciological research tradition and the monitoring activities on glaciers starting in 1879 and presents selected results from the HTNP. In addition, the importance of glaciers for the HTNP is discussed with special emphasis on educational trails. Some considerations on aspects of glacier protection conclude the article.

Schlagworte: glaciers, glacier research, glacier monitoring, glacier preservation, Hohe Tauern National Park

The Swiss National Park (SNP) was founded in 1914 with the aims of protecting a piece of Alpine nature from human intervention and documenting its natural development. This extraordinary rewilding experiment required intensive public relations work from the outset, as the term wilderness did not and does not necessarily have positive associations among the local Alpine population. In order to make the ecological significance of wilderness accessible to the general public in an attractive way, in 2019 the SNP decided to create an extensive exhibition on the topic of wilderness at the National Park Centre in Zernez. Five years passed between the initial idea and the final installation of the new permanent exhibition, involving many phases of development and hurdles to overcome. This article documents the approach, planning and implementation of this important project for the SNP, which was officially opened to the public on 3 June 2023.

Schlagworte: wilderness, exhibition, National Park

The Daqi Mountain Provincial Nature Reserve in eastern Hubei Province, China sustains a unique natural forest ecosystem. It is an important reserve for the conservation of several endangered species and is a native highland forest habitat in the mountainous region of central China. Global warming, biological invasions and human disturbance are seriously threatening some of its endemic species and the entire forest ecosystem. Some endangered species, including Chinemys reevesii, Hynobius chinensis, Paa boulengeri and Falco vespertinus, have experienced significant stresses and ecological challenges. In order better to protect biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, some measures should be undertaken, including more research and ecological monitoring and the adoption of more reliable fire protection strategies and means of response. We hope that this study can provide useful information for the conservation and management of biodiversity in the forest ecosystems of central China.

Schlagworte: biodiversity conservation, forest ecosystem, highland, subtropical monsoon climate, endangered species