Mountain ecosystem services under a changing climate: A global perspective

• Systematic review of climate change effects on mountain ecosystem services (MES). • Relatively few studies (88 selected papers) but dramatic impacts on MES worldwide. • Effects on MES (mainly) negative in 50% of the evaluations, (mainly) positive in 6%. • Disruption of environmental and ecological processes influence ecosystem services. • Research biased towards Europe and Central Asia and unrelated to expected climate change. Mountains are undergoing dramatic climate-induced changes, with drastic consequences on ecosystems and therefore on mountain ecosystem services (MES). Negative trends have been reported for mountain biodiversity, provisioning and cultural MES. Despite the worldwide importance of mountains as suppliers of ecosystem services, MES alterations induced by climate change have been scarcely considered. This systematic review provides a global synthesis of climate change effects on MES and explores the link between expected intensity of climate change and research effort at the regional scale. 1184 documents were retrieved from Web of Science and 88 (published since 2011) selected following the PRISMA approach. Most studies addressed the effects of climate change on MES through modelling approaches (N = 52). The impacts/consequences of environmental factors influencing MES were the most investigated topic. Provisioning MES were the most studied, followed by cultural and regulating. Supporting services and interactions among MES were poorly investigated. Half of the studies reported negative/mainly negative effects on MES, while only 6 % reported positive/mainly positive effects, suggesting widespread MES disruption. Studies distribution was not homogeneous, with most studies coming from Tibetan Plateau/Himalayas and central Europe. We found no link between the expected intensity of climate change and the number of studies. Most papers did not propose concrete actions but recommended research directions and underlined gaps of knowledge. This review strengthens the understanding of MES under the current changing climate conditions. Recognising and preserving MES from irreversible alteration induced by climate change is crucial, especially in less studied regions with strong predicted climate change.