High-mountain catchments regulate key hydrological and biogeochemical processes, shaping soil development, vegetation dynamics, water chemistry, and air-water exchange. Their high sensitivity to climate change, through glacier retreat, rising temperatures, and shifting precipitation regimes, means that even subtle alterations can cascade downstream, affecting water quality, biogeochemical fluxes, and ecosystem functioning far beyond the headwaters. Yet, despite their relevance, these systems remain poorly understood. Their steep gradients, rapid hydrological responses, and extreme environmental conditions complicate measurements and modeling, while remoteness, short field seasons, high gas-exchange rates, and low solute concentrations further constrain research. Together, these factors leave substantial gaps in our understanding of spatial and temporal dynamics in high-mountain catchment biogeochemistry.
This session aims to advance our understanding of biogeochemical processes in high-mountain catchments by integrating perspectives across the terrestrial-aquatic-atmosphere interface. We welcome contributions bridging hydrology, carbon, nutrients, and other element cycles from the catchment to the reach and plot scale, including the dynamics of dissolved and particulate elemental fluxes in soils, lakes, rivers, as well as studies exploring the impacts of land use and climate change. We particularly encourage submissions that apply novel methods or interdisciplinary approaches, such as remote sensing, autonomous sensor networks, machine learning, mathematical modeling, and innovative field techniques to overcome current spatial and temporal data limitations. By bringing together scientists from diverse disciplines, this session seeks to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration on the biogeochemical processes and emergent ecosystem responses in these vulnerable environments.