Climate Change in Himalaya

The 3-month long assignment has come to the end, but the journey with the Himalayas never ends. Writing this blog is just like a self-paced trekking deep into the Himalayas, along with the magnificent landscape and incredible flora and fauna, the environmental change is also taking place in the Third Pole in recent decades. Natural climate variability and increased human activities are known to have contributed to glacial environment change, forest degradation, floods and GLOFs, landcover and biodiversity loss associated with ecosystem disturbance, which in turn affects the global climate system regulation and leads to vulnerabilities in social-economic developments at many levels. Before it is too late, more attention and actions with precise steps are needed from governments, research institutions, NGOs, local communities, you, me and everyone, to safeguard the Himalayan environment and human well-being. I will keep this blog open for more discoveries along the journey in the Himalay...

Himalayan is a paradise for plant species, comprised of 39% grassland, 20% forested area, 15% of shrubland, and 5% agricultural land . The vegetation can be broadly grouped into four altitudinal types— tropical, subtropical, temperate, and alpine . Apart from elevation, the plant communities is also affected by climatic factors such as changes in temperature, precipitation, snow cover, wind and sun exposure. Meanwhile  anthropocentric influence  is driving vegetation dynamics to a change owing to urbanisation, deforestation, land-use change and hydropower development. Although facing the challenge of Himalayan topographical complexity and harsh environment, advanced methods such as satellite remote sensing and  Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)   have been developped and utilised  for high-quality mapping and data analysis. Numerous institutions also endeavour to make progress with government and local community on plant life conservation and vulner...