Abstract
Various studies have reported that the entire Himalayan region is prone to ongoing climate change. There are a few regions in the world where these changes might be as rapid as found in case of Himalaya. The increase in average temperature is expected to be much higher in this region as compared to global average warming. With the expected changes in climate, there is higher probability of shifts and changes in the structure, composition and function of forest ecosystems. However, the global understanding on climate change implications in the Himalaya is most often based on data sets of a particular biome or landform (e.g. Tibetan grass lands), thereby making the other biomes/landforms and dependent communities less represented. As a result, the global projections/scenarios w.r.t. Himalaya remain less applicable for the entire region particularly for the forest dominated Himalayan Region. The forests in the region are vulnerable to climate change impacts, but the extent and magnitude of potential response is still not well understood. The direction of investigations across regions is also not uniform. This calls for uniform distribution of studies across diverse landforms/biomes so that modeled projections/scenarios become more agreeable and applicable.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to Director G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development (GBP NIHESD) for facilities. Financial support from Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India under the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE)-Task Force 3 ‘Forest Resources and Plant Biodiversity’ is gratefully acknowledged.
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Nandi, S.K., Negi, V.S., Rawal, R.S. (2020). Need for Reorienting Climate Change Research in the Himalaya: Balancing the Approach. In: Goel, P., Ravindra, R., Chattopadhyay, S. (eds) Climate Change and the White World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21679-5_7
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