ABSTRACT
Climate change manifests differently around the world, with geographical location and biophysical characteristics shaping the impacts felt in a particular region. People with a long history of interaction with the environment can differentiate with precision and detail climate change impacts occurring in their social-ecological systems. This chapter draws on the knowledge of local communities of Sierra Nevada, a mountainous area of Spain, to study climate-related cascading effects. It includes data from 238 surveys, in which respondents were asked to identify the most impactful changes in the atmospheric, physical, biological, and human systems. It uses network analysis (1) to identify the triggering climate change impacts and (2) to analyse their cascading effects. Results show that informants devoted to agricultural and livestock activities perceive more triggering and cascading impacts on their social-ecological system and more relations between them than informants not devoted exclusively to these activities. Results show that elements of the atmospheric and the physical systems trigger most cascading effects, whereas elements of the biological and the human system are the most impacted.
