Climate change aggravates the challenges of sustainable development in mountain regions and calls for deeper insights into impacts on the vulnerability of mountain people and their options for adapting to changing conditions. Peru is considered highly vulnerable to climate change. Therefore, its government has initiated a program to strengthen the capacity for transdisciplinary research in order to propose adaptation measures and reduce the negative impacts of climate change. The present article describes the strategy for selecting the study area and for achieving collaboration between natural and social scientists, stakeholders, decision-makers, and other societal groups, in order to carry out an integrated assessment of climate change in the mountainous ecosystems region of central Peru, with an emphasis on vulnerability and adaptation.

The relationship between monthly mean sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the commonly used El Niño regions and precipitation for 44 stations in Perú is documented for 1950–2002. Linear lag correlation analysis is employed to establish the potential for statistical precipitation forecasts from SSTs. Useful monthly mean precipitation anomaly forecasts are possible for several locations and calendar months if SST anomalies in El Niño 1+2, Niño 3.4, and Niño 4 regions are available. Prediction of SST anomalies in El Niño regions is routinely available from Climate Prediction Center, NOAA, with reasonable skill in the El Niño 3.4 region, but the prediction in El Niño 1+2 region is less reliable. The feasibility of using predicted SST anomalies in the El Niño 3.4 region to predict SST anomalies in El Niño 1+2 region is discussed.

Este trabajo describe e interpreta, en términos de ondas ecuatoriales, la variabilidad de la anomalía del nivel del mar (ANM) y la anomalía de la velocidad zonal (AVZ) en el Pacífico Ecuatorial en el período 2000-2007. Para esto, se implementó un modelo numérico oceánico simple de un modo baroclínico de esfuerzo de viento. Éste se forzó con anomalías de esfuerzo de viento (AEV) obtenidas del satélite QSCAT para el período 2000-2007. Los resultados de la simulación, en la variable ANM, determinan la existencia de perturbaciones con periodos de 45 y 91 días, es decir, perturbaciones intra-estacionales, las cuáles están asociadas, en parte, a la variabilidad atmosférica del tipo Madden Julian (Madden & Julian, 1971). Estas oscilaciones también se aprecian en la ANM del producto satelital TOPEX/POSEIDON/JASON y la anomalía de la profundidad de la isoterma de 20°C en 140...

A local integrated assessment of the vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in the Mantaro River Basin, located in Peruvian Central Andes, was developed between years 2003 to 2005. In this paper we present some lessons learned during the development of this study, emphasizing the multi-institutional and interdisciplinary efforts, briefly showing the methodological aspects, and pointing out the main problems found.

The Andes as mountain regions worldwide, provide fundamental resources, not only for the local population. Due to the topographic characteristics, the potential for natural hazards is higher than elsewhere. In these areas, assessments of climate change impacts and the development of adequate adaptation strategies therefore become particular important. The data basis, however, is often scarce. Moreover, perceptions of changes and needs are often divergent between national and local levels, which make the implementation of adaptation measures a challenge. Taking the Peruvian Andes as an example, this paper aims at initiating a discussion about scientific baseline and integrative concepts needed to deal with the adverse effects of climate change in mountain regions.

The present work is part of the "Integrated Local Assessment of the Mantaro River Basin" (ILA Mantaro), whose main objective was: to systematize and to extend the knowledge about climate change in the Mantaro river basin, and to evaluate the climatic, physical and social aspects of its vulnerability, as well as to identify viable adaptation options for the agriculture, hydroelectric energy and health sectors, to be incorporated into local and regional development planning. In this context, the climatic component of the study consisted in the analysis of the climatic characteristics of the river basin: intraseasonal and interannual variability of rainfall over the basin, the relation of regional climate with atmospheric patterns on regional and global scale, the climatic trends in the last 50 or 40 years, and the characteristics of the freezes and the trends in their frequency and intensi...