About

For many, Mountains are the go-to place to reconnect to Nature, to relax and to enjoy a clean environment and fresh air. Mountains also provide us with many important goods, which we need for our daily lives and our health. Those goods include construction wood, fire wood, pastures for livestock, clean drinking water and clean air, amongst others.

Our research, funded by the AXA Research Fund, Belmont Forum, DFG and others, will contribute to our understanding of mountain freshwater ecosystems, the services they provide to human society and the risks we face with future changes of these sensitive ecosystems. We will investigate patterns of pollution, pathogens, microorganisms and global changes in mountain ecosystems to understand the interlinkages between biodiversity change, ecosystem health and human well-being.

Decision makers and stakeholders need to understand that even the most remote areas are strongly threatened by the dominant species of our planet, us.

Our research is funded by

News

The series of YouTube films "Mountains - a fragile source of life" has now 8 episodes, with the last episode published in 5 languages: English, Spanish, German, French and Palatinian. Subscribe to the channel, leave your comments and enjoy the videos!

In total, P³ formed four PhD students. Adriana and Marilen are now doctors. Adriana, together with the P³ team, has published an interesting review on explaining the importance of the microbiome in disease expression - developing the concept of the disease pyramid. The article has been published in Trends in Parasitology. Marilen has published an overview on the role of abiotic mountain variables in explaining the emergence of the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis in mountain ecosystems. The article was published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. Oliver and Judit have not yet defended their thesis. Oliver has now published his second article on a toxic cocktail in mountain lakes. All three articles are important reads and add important knowledge to health risks in mountain ecosystems.