Monitoring and assessment of glaciers and glacial lakes: climate change impact on the Mago Chu Basin, Eastern Himalayas

Borah, Suranjana Bhaswati; Das, Apurba Kumar; Hazarika, Nabajit; Basumatary, Himolin

doi:10.1007/s10113-022-01984-2

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 71 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The region provides highly heterogeneous environments with several altitudinal gradients (roughly from 10 metres to 7000 metres above sea level), varying climatic conditions and multiple habitat types, thereby facilitating high diversity in species such as of birds (Acharya et al, 2011), plants (Saikia et al, 2017), mammals (Dhendup et al, 2019), and butterflies (Singh and Chib, 2014). Bhutan and Northeast India is also faced with severe effects of climate change resulting in faster melting of glaciers, increased frequency of floods, and decreased seasonal rainfall in some parts (Borah et al, 2022;Das, 2016;Choudhury et al, 2019, respectively), which is expected to have severe consequences on the biodiversity of the region. Our first aim was to determine potential distributions of the Muscicapidae Flycatchers in the region.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecology and not phylogeny influences sensitivity to climate change in Muscicapidae Flycatchers in Eastern Himalayan and Indo-Burman hotspots

Dhanda,

Jezierski,

Coulson

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

AimsSpecies’ distributional responses to climate change can depend on ecology and phylogeny. The degree of habitat specialism is potentially important because habitat generalists with wider distributions are assumed to be less sensitive to environmental changes compared to narrowly-distributed habitat specialists. Additionally, predicting which aspects of the changing climate impacts species with different habitat associations may be particularly challenging in complex environments such as those of tropical mountains. We explore the effects of climate change on potential distributions of Muscicapidae Flycatchers in parts of the Eastern Himalayan Mountains and the Indo-Burman range, and relate predictions to the level of ecological habitat specialism, while accounting for phylogenetic relatedness.LocationBhutan and Northeast IndiaMethodsWe used Maxent to develop ecological niche models of 60 Muscicapidae Flycatchers under different climatic scenarios by collating presences from Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Bioclimatic variables from WorldClim, and elevation from ASTER. Species were scored as habitat specialists or generalists using the Species Specialism Index. Variables with high contributions to Maxent models were extracted to explore sensitivity to climate change based on habitat specialism while testing for phylogenetic signal using Phylogenetic Generalised Least Squares.ResultsMaxent models had the highest contributions from variable bio8 (mean temperature of wettest quarter) under present climate, and tmax (maximum temperature) under future climatic scenarios. Phylogenetic Generalised Least Squares revealed that habitat generalists had higher sensitivity to climate change than specialists. We did not detect strong phylogenetic signal in sensitivity to abiotic variables under all climate scenarios.Main conclusionsPotential distributions of Muscicapidae Flycatchers were sensitive to temperature variable in the month of the highest precipitation, and to maximum temperature. Potential distributions of habitat generalists were particularly sensitive to these abiotic variables, and those of habitat specialists less so. Sensitivity to abiotic variables did not show a pattern of phylogenetic niche conservatism. climate change, Muscicapidae Flycatchers, phylogenetic niche conservatism, habitat specialism, tropical mountains, Maxent

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecology and not phylogeny influences sensitivity to climate change in Muscicapidae Flycatchers in Eastern Himalayan and Indo-Burman hotspots

Dhanda,

Jezierski,

Coulson

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Temporal variation in glacier surface area and glacial lakes in glaciated river basins of Arunachal Pradesh

Murtem,

Mandal,

Nunchhani

et al. 2023

Journal of Water and Climate Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate change-induced glacier recession has sparked a dynamic transformation of glaciers in high-mountain areas worldwide, resulting in genesis, expansion, and dissipation of glacial lakes that pose a potential threat to downstream communities, underscoring the need for regular monitoring. This study incorporates the automated glacier extraction index (AGEI) to improve debris-free glacier mapping accuracy, by reducing water and shadow area categorization errors, using multi-temporal Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-8 OLI, digital elevation model (SRTM DEM), to obtain precise glacier extent. Waterbodies were delineated using thresholding techniques applied to water indices: NDWI, MNDWI, NDTI, and slope information. The study attempted to map and analyze the temporal variations of glaciers and glacier lakes in the glaciated sub-basins of Arunachal Pradesh: Dibang Basin, Mago Basin, and Subansiri Basin. Glaciers receded at a shrinkage rate of 1.08% per year (1988–2017) in Mago Basin, 1.01% per year (2013–2022) in Subansiri Basin, and 1.42% per year (1995–2021) in Dibang Basin. Glacier lakes showed an increasing trend in number and area due to glacier melt, expanding at rates of 3.31% in the Mago Basin, 0.48% in the Subansiri Basin, and 0.68% in the Dibang Basin per year. Findings suggest that global climate change is likely the primary factor driving glacier changes in these basins.

show abstract

Monitoring and assessment of glaciers and glacial lakes: climate change impact on the Mago Chu Basin, Eastern Himalayas

Cited by 2 publications

References 71 publications

Ecology and not phylogeny influences sensitivity to climate change in Muscicapidae Flycatchers in Eastern Himalayan and Indo-Burman hotspots

Ecology and not phylogeny influences sensitivity to climate change in Muscicapidae Flycatchers in Eastern Himalayan and Indo-Burman hotspots

Temporal variation in glacier surface area and glacial lakes in glaciated river basins of Arunachal Pradesh

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About