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The ECOMONT research programme was carried out from 1996 to 1998 as a contribution to the European Union's 4th Framework Programme - Research and Technological Development. The aim of the project was to clarify what ecological changes resulted from restrictions on land use in different European mountain habits. Variously used and no longer used alpine pasture ecosystems were examined in six project regions in the Austrian and Swiss Alps, the Spanish Pyrenees and the Scottish Highlands. Using the most modern means of ecological research, nine research groups from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Great Britain examined changes in ecological processes, from the single plant to the landscape. In the present first volume the authors describe the research concept, the special features of the mountain landscapes examined and the novel methods applied, such as the Geographical Information System, remote sensing and mathematical modelling. The research results presented deal with, among other things, the effects of land-use changes on vegetation and soil, on plant and animal biodiversity, on the water and carbon balance and on the exchange processes between the mountain landscapes examined and the lower levels of the atmosphere.