123 Results Found

Gridded precipitation datasets (GPDs) have complemented gauge-based measurements in global hydrology by providing spatiotemporally continuous rainfall estimates for streamflow prediction. However, these datasets suffer from uncertainties in space and...

Climate warming and concomitant glacier recession in the High Mountain Asia (HMA) have led to widespread development and expansion of glacial lakes, which reserved the freshwater resource, but also may increase risks of glacial lake outburst floods (...

The production and transport of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) is central to weathering reactions and the global carbon cycle. We investigated the spatiotemporal variability and export of inorganic carbon species along the rapidly weathering Langta...

Debris-covered glaciers, with their intricate thermal dynamics and significant spatial heterogeneity, play a pivotal role in elucidating glacier ablation processes and their responses to climate change. However, existing research on their energy bala...

Animals inhabiting colder climates have a larger body size (Bergmann’s rule) and smaller body extremities (Allen’s rule), which help homeothermic animals to retain heat. Such ecogeographical phenomena have frequently been observed in anim...

Rock glaciers represent typical periglacial landscapes and are distributed widely in alpine mountain environments. Rock glacier activity represents a critical indicator of water reserves state, permafrost distribution, and landslide disaster suscepti...

In recent decades, human activities have significantly transformed land use and land cover (LULC) and the environment of the Central Himalayas region. LULC is a major component of environmental and climatic research. The aim of this study was to dete...

Impure dolomitic marble from the Great Himalayan Sequences (GHS) in Thongmön area, central Himalaya, is first systematically reported here concerning its petrographic features, textural relations, and fluid evolution. The Thongmön impure ma...

Pumqu is the biggest river in the Qomolangma National Natural Reserve in China. It is one of the headwaters of the river Ganges and is an important international river in southern Tibet Autonomous Region (T.A.R). However, there are a lack of systemat...

A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a typical glacier-related hazard in high mountain regions. In recent decades, glacial lakes in the Himalayas have expanded rapidly due to climate warming and glacial retreat. Some of these lakes are unstable, a...

Understanding the mechanisms underlying seasonal community dynamics is important for predicting biodiversity responses to environmental fluctuations, enhancing ecological forecasting, and informing conservation strategies. In this study, we use stand...

Many debris-covered glaciers are broadly distributed across High Mountain Asia and have made a number of contributions to water circulation for Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP). The formation of large supraglacial lakes poses risks for glacier lake outbur...

Vegetation forms a main component of the terrestrial biosphere owing to its crucial role in land cover and climate change, which has been of wide concern for experts and scholars. In this study, we used MODIS (moderate-resolution imaging spectroradio...

Himalayan glacier changes in the context of global climate change have attracted worldwide attention due to their profound cryo-hydrological ramifications. However, an integrated understanding of the debris-free and debris-covered glacier evolution a...

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission provides high-resolution precipitation estimates globally. However, their accuracy needs to be accessed for algorithm enhancement and hydro-meteorological applications. This study applies data from 3...

Land use and land cover change (LUCC) and its spatio-temporal characteristics are essential for natural resource management and sustainable development. LUCC is one of the major factors that affect the ecosystem and the services it provides. In this...

Chir pine (Pinus roxburghii Sarg.) is a common tree species with ecological and economic importance across the subtropical forests of the central Himalayas. However, little is known about its growth response to the recent warming and drying trends ob...

The present study analyzes data from total suspended particulate (TSP) samples collected during 3 years (2005–2008) at Nainital, central Himalayas, India and analyzed for carbonaceous aerosols (organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC)) and inorg...

Precisely detecting and attributing changes in vegetation greenness is crucial for sustainable ecosystem management. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is highly responsive to changes in vegetation cover and is essential for assessing...

Land use and land cover is a fundamental variable that affects many parts of social and physical environmental aspects. Land use and land cover changes (LUCC) has been known as one of the key drivers of affecting in ecosystem services. The trans-boun...

The Himalaya is a mosaic of complex socio-ecological systems (SESs) characterized by a wide diversity of altitude, climate, landform, biodiversity, ethnicity, culture, and agriculture systems, among other things. Identifying the distribution of SESs...

Between 11 and 14 August 2017, the southern belt of the central Himalaya experienced extreme precipitation, with some stations recording more than 500 mm of accumulated rainfall, which resulted in widespread, devastating flooding. Precipitation was c...

The Diurnal Temperature Range (DTR) profoundly affects human health, agriculture, eco-system, and socioeconomic systems. In this study, we analyzed past and future changes in DTR using gridded Climate Research Unit (CRU) datasets for the years 1950&n...

The seasonal phenological segregation observed among various species within a plant community can be interpreted as a form of niche differentiation that facilitates the coexistence of these species. In the present study, life forms and phenological a...

Climate change has led to the formation of numerous high-altitude lakes of glacial origin in the Himalaya. Safed Lake is one of the largest glacial lakes, located at an elevation 4882 m a.s.l. in the state of Uttarakhand, central Himalaya, India. A t...

The continuous melting of valley glaciers can impact the water levels of glacial lakes and create glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). The Xixabangma massif is one of the most populated areas in the Himalayas and has suffered from multiple GLOFs. To...

The impact of climate change on farmers’ livelihoods has been observed in various forms at the local and regional scales. It is well known that the Himalayas region is affected by climate change, as reflected in the basic knowledge of farmers in the...

Precipitation is a central quantity of hydrometeorological research and applications. Especially in complex terrain, such as in High Mountain Asia (HMA), surface precipitation observations are scarce. Gridded precipitation products are one way to ove...

Changing climate can strongly affect tree growth and forest productivity. The dendrochronological approach to assessing the impact of climate change on tree growth is possible through climate–growth correlation analysis. This study uses an indi...

The Kashmir Valley is immensely susceptible to soil erosion due to its diverse topography and unstable geological formations in the Himalayan region. The present study helps in assessing the spatial distribution and prioritizing soil erosion zones in...

Meltwater from the cryosphere contributes a significant fraction of the freshwater resources in the countries receiving water from the Third Pole. Within the ESA-MOST Dragon 4 project, we addressed in particular changes of glaciers and proglacial lak...

The Mt. Qomolangma (Everest) National Nature Preserve (QNNP) is among the highest natural reserves in the world. Monitoring the spatiotemporal changes in the vegetation in this complex vertical ecosystem can provide references for decision makers to...

Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are one of the most severe disasters in alpine regions, releasing a large amount of water and sediment that can cause fatalities and economic loss as well as substantial damage to downstream infrastructures. The r...

The study of land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) and their impact on ecosystem services (ESs) is vital for Nepal, where the majority of people are dependent on agriculture and services related to the ecosystem. In this context, this paper aims to...

The diurnal, seasonal, and spatio-temporal characteristics of local wind systems in a steep mountain valley in Nepal are analyzed with the identification of valley wind days (VWDs). Distributed across the Rolwaling Himal valley in Nepal between 3700...

The rapid melting of glaciers has led to severe glacial-hydrological hazards in the Himalayas. An extreme example occurred on 7 February 2021, when a catastrophic mass flow descended from the Ronti glacier at Chamoli, Indian Himalaya, causing widespr...

This study was conducted in a temperate mixed oak–pine forest of Central Himalaya, India to (i) evaluate altitudinal and seasonal variations in the microbial biomass carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) and (ii) analyse the relationships...

The spatial relationships of the widely distributed latest Jurassic–Early Cretaceous igneous rocks in the Tethyan Himalaya, northeastern India, and southeastern Australia are crucial for understanding the breakup of eastern Gondwana. However, a...

Understanding the potential habitat of Meconopsis, their species richness distribution patterns, and their influencing factors are critical for the conservation and rational exploitation of this valuable resource. In this study, we applied the MaxEnt...

On the evening of 31 March 2019, Parsa and Bara Districts in central Nepal were severely hit by a wind storm which was the first documented tornadic incidence in Nepal.In this paper, we investigate the background of the tornado formation via numerica...

Climate change has affected forest ecosystems across the world over the past century. However, its impact is particularly high in the Himalayas due to increasing temperatures, extreme precipitation events, and regional droughts. In this context, a re...

Himalayan glaciers, in general, are shrinking and glacial lakes are evolving and growing rapidly in number and size as a result of climate change. This study presents the latest remote sensing-based inventory (2017) of glacial lakes (size ≥0.0036...

Species diversity is high in the Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains, particularly at the edges characterized by deep ravines and “sky islands”. Studies focused on sky-island species are sparse and the patterns observed in response to both geogra...

Forest/wildfires have been one of the most notable severe catastrophes in recent decades across the globe, and their intensity is expected to rise with global warming. Forest fire contributes significantly to particulate and gaseous pollution in the...

Streamflow and sediment flux variations in a mountain river basin directly affect the downstream biodiversity and ecological processes. Precipitation is expected to be one of the main drivers of these variations in the Himalayas. However, such relati...

Axyris is a small genus of six species with a disjunct geographic range. Five species are present in Siberia, Central Asia, the Himalayas, and Tibet, whereas Axyris caucasica has been registered in the Central Caucasus only. Axyris species diversity...

Construction of roads into remote rural areas can improve livelihoods by reducing transportation costs, but may also have negative environmental impacts, such as increased deforestation. However, evidence of the effect of rural roads on household env...

Farmland abandonment is increasingly prevalent, especially in the Central Himalaya. Precise mapping of abandoned areas is crucial for understanding their status and socioecological impacts. However, distinguishing abandoned farmland from transitional...

Centella asiatica is well known for its miraculous therapeutic properties in various systems of traditional medicine across the world. However, significant variation in its pharmacological activities has been reported due to the unavailability of qua...

The Sikkim region of the Himalayas (NE India) may form an important microplate between Nepal and Bhutan. Here we report high-resolution pressure-temperature (P-T) paths taken from garnet-bearing rocks across the northern and eastern portion of the re...