Himalayan ecosystem services and climate change driven agricultural frontiers: a scoping review

Abstract

Climate change, rising temperatures, snow melts and more frequent droughts and floods are disproportionately affecting food and water security, habitat health, and agricultural productivity in the Himalayan region. These climatic changes are negatively impacting productivity of staple crops including wheat, maize, and rice at lower altitudes, but may provide opportunities to utilize Climate Change Driven Agricultural Frontiers [CCDAFs] at higher altitudes. Agricultural expansion into CCDAFs paired with behavioural shifts such as replacing traditional crop systems with commercial crops will predominantly affect forests, water resources, and soil health, which are already negatively affected by climate change unless adaptation options are directed to just and sustainable agroecological transitions. By trading regulating, supporting, and cultural services for food and water provisioning services, as are evident in land sparing strategy, the utilization of CCDAFs will have long-term implications for the sustainability of mountain farming systems. Climate change is affecting Himalayan agriculture, food security, and ecosystem services, and scientific literature predominantly focus on one of these topics in isolation, occasionally connecting results to another topic. By classifying literature as predominantly agriculture, food security, or ecosystem service themed, this scoping review identifies sources with multiple dominant themes and explores how the relationships between these topics are represented in literature to provide research based evidence to promote the future expansion of agriculture that is low-carbon, just and sustainable. Gaps in the literature reveal that research is needed on the extent of CCDAFs in the Himalayas and the potential trade-offs on utilizing the frontier areas.

Credibility assessment of cold adaptive Pseudomonas jesenni MP1 and P. palleroniana N26 on growth, rhizosphere dynamics, nutrient status, and yield of the kidney bean cultivated in Indian Central Himalaya

“…The Himalayan region demonstrates a diverse environment over different altitudes and hence their soil quality and native growing crops are also diverse. The Indian Himalayan region is known as the reservoir of microbial diversity, but the hilly area’s soil is getting shattered through various natural and anthropogenic activities, which ultimately reduce the soil health, crop productivity, diversity sustenance, nutrient availability, and increased disease occurrence and health hazards ( Babu et al., 2020 ; Kc et al., 2022 ). Among the numerous crops cultivated in the Himalayan region, the kidney bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) crop is known for its nutritional richness and premium quality ( Jan et al., 2021 ).…”

Combating Climate Change and Global Warming for a Sustainable Living in Harmony with Nature

“…To safeguard the Paris Agreement, there is a need to limit global warming to well below 2 °C, and if necessary drastic actions are required to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 °C. For example, the Himalayan ecosystem is very delicate and even the slightest changes in the climate can have long-lasting effects on such vulnerable regions [2] . The average global temperature across the year was around 14.9 °C, putting it around 1.2 °C rise above the average (Figure 2).…”

Examining Varying Rainfall in the different elevation of Nepal and Water Scarcity

“…In recent years, literatures are available to cover this issue at national level and at local level. However, most literatures (Bajracharya, et al (2023);Bhandari, et al (2023); Bom, Tiefenbacher, & Belbase, (2023); Chauhan, Thakuri, & Pradhan, (2023); Gautam, et al (2023);Jamarkattel, et al (2023); Kandel, et al (2023); Karki, et al (2023);KC, et al (2023); Mohammed, et al (2023); Pandey, et al (2023);Parajuli, et al (2021) Poudel, et al (2023Ranabhat, et al (2023); Talchabhadel & Chhetri,(2023) ;Thapa, et al (2023); Timilsina, et al (2023);and Tiwari, et al (2023) cover erratic rainfall and its adverse effects. However, they do not cover erratic rainfall related to the elevated landscapes.…”