Climate change and treeline dynamics: Understanding treeline response to climate change and its impact on associated landscape and population.
Roosen KUMAR, DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY, UNIVERSITY OF DELHI, INDIA, India
Bindhy Wasini PANDEY, DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY, UNIVERSITY OF DELHI, INDIA, India
Abstract
The rate at which the Himalayas are warming are usually higher than the global averages. The warming rate in the high-altitude regions of the Himalayas has been reported roughly between 0.6 to 1 °C per decade. Treelines are widely used as an indicator for observation of landscape response to climatic changes. The term treeline has been defined in a different manner by several scholars. Some popular definition refers the Treeline as the line or the altitude above which the trees cannot grow or the maximum extent upto which trees are capable of growing. Whereas, few definitions define treeline as the maximum height upto which tree cover is dense and forests are capable of growing. There are many factors that influence the treeline (natural as well as anthropogenic) and thus, the treeline in a region can be affected by several factors. It may be affected by natural aspects or by anthropogenic elements. However, there are two main factors that determine the alpine treeline, the heat (temperature) and the moisture (precipitation). This paper attempts to show the responses of treeline with response to the climate change and non-climatic factors around the world. It further analyses the impact of such changes on associated ecosystem and dependent population. Thus, it analyses challenges and opportunities for those communities. Major interests in the wake of global climate changes are conservation and management of natural resources, agriculture and livestock productivity, social health and wellbeing, food security, etc. Therefore, inorder to fulfill the goals of sustainable mountain development, understanding mountain dynamics becomes important.
Mots clés : Mountains|high altitude|treeline;|transhumance|landscape
A104175RK