Review and synthesis of climate change studies in the Himalayan region

Abstract

There are a few regions in the world, where climate change impacts are more intense than other regions of the world, and Himalaya is the case. The Himalaya, one of the biodiversity hotspot regions and provider of ecosystem services to billion of people all across the world. Present study reviewed and synthesized climate change studies in the Himalayan region in general and Indian Himalayan region (IHR) in particular. Analysis of the literature indicates exponentially increase in climate change studies 2005 onward in the IHR, and maximum are from Jammu and Kashmir (105) followed by Uttarakhand (100) and Himachal Pradesh (77). Among the subject types, maximum climate change impact was studied on water resources/glacier retreat (141 studies) followed by agriculture (113) and forests/biodiversity (86). Increasing temperature, frequent drought spells, erratic rainfall and declining snowfall are commonly reported indicators of climate change. For instance, temperature is reported to increase by 1.5 °C in the Himalaya than an average increase of 0.74 °C globally in last century; however, it varied in eastern (0.1 °C per decade and western Himalayas (0.09 °C per decade. An increase in temperature between 0.28 and 0.80 °C per decade was reported for North-western Himalaya and 0.20-1.00 °C per decade for Eastern Himalaya. The higher altitude of Himalayan and Trans-Himalayan zone are reported to be warming at higher rates. Many of the glaciers were reported to be retreating in both eastern and western Himalaya. Heavy rainfall is becoming very common in the region often accompanied by cloudbursts that aggravate flood situation many times. Perception-based studies of the region reported to provide firsthand and detailed descriptions of climate change indicators and impacts from rural and remote areas, where no instrumental data are available.

Scientists' warning of threats to mountains

“…Trends in warming of mountain surface air temperatures become more and more apparent (López-Moreno et al, 2008;Niedrist et al, 2018;Niedrist and Füreder, 2021), and high-latitude mountains are projected to warm much faster than temperate and tropical mountains (Negi et al, 2021;Nogues-Bravo et al, 2007). Further, warming is accentuated at higher altitudes (Pepin et al, 2015).…”

Prediction of historical, current and future configuration of Gymnadenia orchidis 1 based on the optimized MaxEnt in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

“…Studies by (LI et al 2019;Negi et al 2021;Pramod et al 2023) have suggested that the mountains on the southern slope of the study area experience higher temperatures and precipitation compared to the northern slope. This indicates that the southern slope provides a sheltered environment to resist extreme cold conditions, which may be related to the diverse climate types in this region (Hu and Wei 2022).…”

Conservation Priority Index of species, communities, and habitats for biodiversity conservation and their management planning: A case study in Gulmarg Wildlife Sanctuary, Kashmir Himalaya

“…However, the Himalayan ecosystems are highly vulnerable and are degrading due to various biotic and abiotic stresses (Wani et al, 2022). Overall, climate change is a leading cause of ecological changes and biodiversity loss, although species invasions are also one of the important factors contributing to changes in forest productivity and biodiversity loss, especially native and endemic species (Behera et al, 2019;Negi et al, 2021;Wani et al, 2021). Besides these factors, the forests of the Himalayan region are now becoming vulnerable due to increasing anthropogenic disturbances like deforestation, unsustainable fuel wood, timber collection, and agricultural expansion (Negi and Maikhuri, 2017;Thakur et al, 2022).…”