Mountains are incredible and unique landscapes that offer a wealth of natural and cultural resources on every continent. Mountain ranges have distinct climatic, ecological, and geological characteristics. They are a crucial component of the cryosphere and hydrosphere, providing water storage and distribution that extends to lower elevations. Mountains also occupy a central cultural and social role, with many cultures considering them as sacred places and sources of inspiration for histories and sagas. Alpine regions represent the opposition between refugee and hazard, solitude and danger, and environmental sensitivity and harsh conditions.

As part of the global activities for International Mountain Day on December 11th, we invited you to share your mountain experiences both artistically and scientifically through contributions in two formats: photo entries and graphical abstracts. All eligible submissions were displayed on the APECS website and social media.

Formats: 

• Photo Entries

  Submited should be a photo with a 1-2 sentence caption describing the location, date, subject of the picture as well as the name and affiliation of the picture author. We invited contributions in two categories:

  Nature: photos expressing the complex natural dynamics in mountains, such as landscapes, environment, flora, and fauna

  Culture: photos reflecting the cultural and social role of mountains, including people, architecture, customs, and religions

• Graphical abstracts

  Are you conducting or participating in a research project in the mountains? Tell us about it!

  Under this topic we invited to submit a graphical abstract about your research in mountain environments. The graphic should be targeted for a general (non-scientific) audience or undergraduate level. It must have been able to stand alone (no caption), included a title (20 words maximum), and contained no more than 100 words on the image. The graphic should have conveyed the following information:

  · What do you study/which questions are you trying to answer?

  · Where is your study site?

  · Which methods are you using?

  · Why is this work important?

  The name and affiliation of the picture author also must have been included.

Rules:

• ELIGIBILITY

  You must be a member of APECS International to submit an entry. If you are not currently a member, please join before submitting.

  This is not a competition; all entries will be displayed

• SUBMISSION RULES

  The file name for each image must contain the participant’s name and type of submission (e.g. Smith_John_graphical abstract).

  Photos and graphical images must be submitted in JPEG, TIFF, PNG or EPS format. If you submit multiple entries, please save them as separate files.

  Digital manipulation that distorts the reality of the images is not permitted. Only basic enhancements such as sharpening, contrast adjustment, or simple cropping are allowed.

  APECS reserves the right to reject images with incomplete details or that do not respect the theme of the submission call.

• COPYRIGHTS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

  Each submitted image (both photo and graphical abstract) must be original and unpublished for commercial purposes.

  The participant shall retain the copyright to the submitted image(s).

  By submitting an image, the participant will be regarded as having accepted and agreed to be bound by the rules and regulations of the submission call and having granted the organiser, APECS, royalty-free permissions to use the image(s) for promotional or educational purposes (e.g. APECS website, flyers, postcards). APECS will credit the author for any use of the images used.

  People featured in photographs must also accept and agree with the rules and regulations of this submission call. It is the full responsibility of the submitter to inform and obtain the permissions of all the people photographed in the submitted images.