Top

Biodiversity and Conservation

Published in:

06-07-2024 | Original Research

Spatial and seasonal patterns of temperature lapse rate along elevation transects leading to treelines in different climate regimes of the Himalaya

Authors: Rajesh Joshi, Ninchhen Dolma Tamang, Wagmare Balraju, S. P. Singh

Published in: Biodiversity and Conservation | Issue 12/2024

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

There are growing evidences that indicate the Himalayan region is warming rapidly with more warming in high elevation areas. The elevation-dependent warming (EDW) accelerates the rate of change in mountain ecosystems, including cryosphere, hydrology, biodiversity and socio-economic systems. Here, we present temperature lapse rates (TLRs) based on primary data from 21 stations for three elevation transects leading to treeline (Western Himalaya: WH; Central Himalaya: CH; Eastern Himalaya: EH) representing different climate regimes along the Indian region of Himalayan Arc. TLRs were calculated using high temporal resolution data collected for 2 years (2017–2018) from complex Himalayan terrain. The annual mean TLR increased with decreasing moisture, being markedly higher for dry WH transect (− 0.66 °C/100 m) than at moderately moist CH (− 0.52 °C/100 m) and characteristically moist EH transect (− 0.50 °C/100 m). The One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) confirms that the TLR varied spatially, declining from West to East across the Himalayan Arc, and significantly differed seasonally. The lowest mean TLRs were found during the winter season (EH: − 0.46 °C/100 m; CH: − 0.40 °C/100 m; WH: − 0.31 °C/100 m). The monthly TLR for EH transect varied within a narrower range (− 0.32 °C/100 m to − 0.54 °C/100 m), than for CH transect (− 0.24 °C/100 m to − 0.68 °C/100 m), and WH transect (− 0.26 °C/100 m to − 0.90 °C/100 m). The lowest monthly TLR occurred in December (− 0.24 °C/100 m to − 0.32 °C/100 m) for all three transects. The relationship of TLR with rainfall and saturation vapor pressure was analyzed for CH transect to find out influence of these factors on seasonal variation in lapse rate. Moisture, snow albedo and reflectance are the factors which largely control the TLR along the elevation transects. The shallow TLR and higher growing season temperature values (9.2 ± 1.8 °C, 10.0 ± 1.4 °C, and 7.8 ± 1.7 °C), than normally found at treelines, may suggest that treeline environment in Himalaya is warming more rapidly than lowland areas. TLR was lowest in December due to reduced albedo and EDW, which influence treeline dynamics, snow and moisture regime, surface energy balance, species distribution, and growing season of alpine vegetation. The findings of this study provide useful insights to re-parameterize the climate models over the Himalayan region. This study facilitates in improving interpolation of air temperature for ecological studies in un-gauged and data-sparse regions, especially for the alpine region of Himalaya where observed data are extremely scarce.

previous article Predicting the patterns of plant species distribution under changing climate in major biogeographic zones of mainland India

next article Integrated use of field sensors, PhenoCam, and satellite data for pheno-phase monitoring in a tropical deciduous forest of Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary, Jharkhand, India: initial results from the Indian Phenology Network

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Bao J, Stevens B, Kluft L, Jiménez-de-la-Cuesta D (2021) Changes in the tropical lapse rate due to entrainment and their impact on climate sensitivity. Geophy Res Lett. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL094969CrossRef

Barry RG (1992) Mountain weather and climate. Routledge, London

Barry RG, Chorley RJ (1987) Atmosphere, weather and climate, 5th edn. Routledge, London

Bhutiyani MR, Kale VS, Pawar NJ (2007) Long term trends in maximum, minimum and mean annual temperatures across the Northwestern Himalaya during the twentieth century. Clim Chan 85:159–177CrossRef

Blandford TR, Humes KS, Harshburger BJ, Moore BC, Walden VP, Ye H (2008) Seasonal and synoptic variations in near-surface air temperature lapse rates in a Mountainous basin. J Appl Meteorol Climatol 47:249–261CrossRef

Bookhagen B, Burbank DW (2010) Toward a complete Himalayan hydrological budget: spatiotemporal distribution of snowmelt and rainfall and their impact on river discharge. J Geophys Res 115:1–25

Cannone N, Sgorbati S, Guglielmin M (2007) Unexpected impacts of climate change on alpine vegetation. Front Ecol Environ 5(7):360–364CrossRef

Cortemiglia GC (1989) Validità dell’elaborazione statistica nel calcolo del gradiente termico verticale in valle Scrivia. Julia Dertona 2d Ser 68:63–84

Critchfield HJ (2004) General climatology, 4th edn. Prentice Hall, New Delhi

Dimri AP, Dash SK (2012) Winter time climatic trends in the Western Himalayas. Clim Change 111:775–800CrossRef

Dodson R, Marks D (1997) Daily air temperature interpolated at high spatial resolution over a large mountainous region. Clim Res 8(1):1–20CrossRef

Dorji U, Olesen JE, Bøcher PK, Seidenkrantz MS (2016) Spatial variation of temperature and precipitation in Bhutan and links to vegetation and land cover. Mt Res Dev 36(1):66–79CrossRef

Douguédroit A, De Saintignon MF (1970) Méthode d’étudede la décroissance des températures en montagne de latitude moyenne: Exemple des Alpes françaises du Sud. Rev Geogr Alp 58:453–472CrossRef

Elisa G, Colombo N, Acquaotta F, Paro L, Fratianni S (2015) Climate variations in a high altitude Alpine basin and their effects on a glacial environment (Italian Western Alps). Atmósfera 28(2):117–128CrossRef

Fitzharris BB, Allison I, Braithwaite RJ, Brown J, Foehn P (1996) The cryosphere: changes and their impacts. In: Second assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 241–265

Gilbert A, Vincent C (2013) Atmospheric temperature changes over the 20th century at very high elevations in the European Alps from englacial temperatures. Geophys Res Lett 40:2102–2108CrossRef

Giorgi F, Hurrell J, Marinucci M, Beniston M (1997) Elevation dependency of the surface climate change signal: a model study. J Clim 10:288–296CrossRef

Heynen M, Miles E, Ragettli S, Buri P, Immerzeel WW, Pellicciotti F (2016) Air temperature variability in a high elevation Himalayan catchment. Ann Glaciol 57(71):212–222

Henry M, Merlis TM (2020) Forcing dependence of atmospheric lapse rate changes dominates residual polar warming in solar radiation management climate scenarios. Geophys Res Lett. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100200CrossRef

Im ES, Ahn JB (2011) On the elevation dependency of present-day climate and future change over Korea from a high-resolution regional climate simulation. J Meteorol Soc 89:89–100CrossRef

Immerzeel WW, Petersen L, Ragettli S, Pellicciotti F (2014) The importance of observed gradients of air temperature and precipitation for modeling runoff from a glacierized watershed in the Nepalese Himalayas. Water Res 50:2212–2226CrossRef

IPCC (2018) Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157940CrossRef

Joshi R, Sambhav K, Singh SP (2018) Near surface temperature lapse rate for treeline environment in western Himalaya and possible impacts on ecotone vegetation. Trop Ecol 59(2):197–209

Joshi R, Tamang ND, Sambhav K, Mehra C, Bisht BS, Singh SP (2023) Temperature lapse rate in climatically different Himalayan treeline environments: regional analysis of patterns, seasonality, and variability. In: Singh SP, Reshi ZA, Joshi R (eds) Ecology of Himalayan treeline ecotone. Springer, Singapore, pp 51–74CrossRef

Kattel DB, Yao T, Yang K, Tian L, Yang G, Joswiak D (2013) Temperature lapse rate in complex mountain terrain on the southern slope of the central Himalayas. Theor Appl Climatol 113(3–4):671–682CrossRef

Kattel DB, Yao T, Yang W, Yang W, Tiana L (2015) Comparison of temperature lapse rates from the northern to the southern slopes of the Himalayas. Int J Climatol 35:4431–4443CrossRef

Kattel DB, Yao T, Panday PK (2017) Lapse rate in a humid mountainous terrain on the southern slopes of the eastern Himalayas. Theor Appl Climatol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-017-2153-2CrossRef

Kirchner M, Faus-Kessler T, Jakobi G, Leuchner M, Ries L, Scheele HE, Suppan P (2013) Altitudinal temperature lapse rates in an Alpine valley: trends and the influence of season and weather patterns. Int J Climatol 33(3):539–555CrossRef

Kitayama K (1996) Climate of the summit region of Mount Kinabalu (Borneo) in 1992, an El Niño Year. Mt Res Dev 16:65–75CrossRef

Körner C (1998) A reassessment of high elevation treeline positions and their explanation. Oecolo 115:445–459CrossRef

Körner C (1999) Alpine plant life: functional plant ecology of high mountain ecosystems. Springer, BerlinCrossRef

Körner C, Larcher W (1988) Plant life in cold climates. In: Symposium of society for experimental biology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Körner C, Paulsen J (2004) A world-wide study of high-altitude tree line temperatures. J Biogeogr 31:713–732CrossRef

Korner C, Mohl P, Hiltbrunner E (2023) Four ways to define the growing season. Ecol Lett 26:1277–1292. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14260CrossRefPubMed

Krishnan R, Sanjay J, Gnanaseelan C, Mujumdar M, Kulkarni A, Chakraborty S (2020) Assessment of climate change over the Indian region: a report of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4327-2

Latwal A, Sah P, Sharma P (2018) A cartographic representation of a timberline, treeline and woody vegetation around a Central Himalayan summit using remote sensing method. Trop Ecol 59(2):177–186

Liu XD, Chen BD (2000) Climatic warming in the Tibetan Plateau during recent decades. Int J Climatol 20(14):1729–1742CrossRef

Liu X, Cheng Z, Yan L, Yin Z (2009) Elevation dependency of recent and future minimum surface air temperature trends in the Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings. Glob Plan Change 68:164–174CrossRef

Marshall SJ, Sharp MJ, Burgess DO, Anslow FS (2007) Near surface temperature lapse rates on the Prince of Wales Icefield, Ellesmere Island, Canada: implications for regional downscaling of temperature. Int J Climatol 27(3):385–398CrossRef

Müller H, Whiteman CD (1988) Breakup of a nocturnal temperature inversion in the Dischma Valley during DISKUS. J Appl Meteorol 27:188–194CrossRef

Negi P, Goswami A, Joshi GC (2022) Estimation of surface temperature lapse rate over the Uttarakhand region using 107 station data and MODIS-LST data. Geoc Int. https://doi.org/10.1080/10106049.2022.2093993CrossRef

Palazzi E, Filippi FL, Hardenberg J (2017) Insights into elevation-dependent warming in the Tibetan Plateau-Himalayas from CMIP5 model simulations. Clim Dyn 48:3991–4008CrossRef

Pauli H, Gottfried M, Reiter K, Klettner C, Grabherr G (2007) Signals of range expansions and contractions of vascular plants in the high Alps: observations (1994–2004) at the GLORIA master site Schrankogel, Tyrol, Austria. Glob Change Biol 13:147–156CrossRef

Pepin N (2001) Lapse rate changes in Northern England. Theor Appl Climatol 68:1–16CrossRef

Pepin N, Seidel DJ (2005) A global comparison of surface and free-air temperatures at high elevations. J Geophys Res. https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JD005047CrossRef

Pepin N, Bradley RS, Diaz HF, Baraer M, Caceres EB (2015) Elevation-dependent warming in mountain regions of the world. Nat Clim Chang 5:424–430CrossRef

Pepin NC, Arnone E, Gobiet A, Haslinger K, Kotlarski S, Notarnicola C, Palazzi E, Seibert P, Serafin S, Schöner W, Terzago S (2022) Climate changes and their elevational patterns in the mountains of the world. Rev Geophys 60(1):e2020RG000730CrossRef

Qin J, Yang K, Liang S, Guo X (2009) The altitudinal dependence of recent rapid warming over the Tibetan Plateau. Clim Change 97:321–327CrossRef

Ramanathan V (1977) Interactions between ice-albedo, lapse rate and cloud-top feedbacks: an analysis of the nonlinear response of a GCM climate model. J Atmos Sci 34:1885–1897CrossRef

Rangwala I, Miller JR (2012) Climate change in mountains: a review of elevation-dependent warming and its possible causes. Clim Change 114(3–4):527–547CrossRef

Rani S, Mal S (2022) Trends in land surface temperature and its drivers over the High Mountain Asia. Egypt J Remote Sens Space Sci 25(3):717–729

Rolland C (2003) Spatial and seasonal variations of air temperature lapse rates in Alpine regions. J Clim 16(7):1032–1046CrossRef

Romshoo SA, Rafiq M, Rashid I (2018) Spatio-temporal variation of land surface temperature and temperature lapse rate over mountainous Kashmir Himalaya. J Mt Sci 15:563–576CrossRef

Sah P, Sharma S (2018) Topographical characterisation of high-altitude timberline in the Indian Central Himalayan region. Trop Ecol 59(2):187–196

Sharma E, Molden D, Rahman A, Khatiwada YR, Zhang L, Singh SP, Wester P (2019) Introduction to the hindu kush Himalaya assessment. In: Wester P, Mishra A, Mukherji A, Shrestha A (eds) The hindu kush Himalaya assessment. Springer, Cham.

Singh SP, Thadani R (2024) A leaf based classification for Himalayan forests. Int J Ecol Environ Sci 50(1):11–31. https://doi.org/10.55863/ijees.2024.3250CrossRef

Singh SP, Bhattacharya A, Mittal A, Pandey A (2021a) Indian Himalayan timberline in response to climate change. Curr Sci 120(5):859–871CrossRef

Singh SP, Singh RD, Gumber S (2021b) Interpreting Mountain treelines in a changing world. Central Himalayan Environment Association and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Nainital. https://doi.org/10.53055/ICIMOD.787CrossRef

Singh SP, Reshi ZA, Joshi R (2023) Treeline research in the Himalaya: current understanding and future imperatives. In: Singh SP, Reshi ZA, Joshi R (eds) Ecology of Himalayan treeline ecotone. Springer, Singapore, pp 1–30CrossRef

Tang Z, Fang J (2006) Temperature variation along the northern and southern slopes of Mt. Taibai. China Agric for Meteorol 139:200–207CrossRef

Thayyan RJ (2020) Hydrology of cold arid Himalaya. In: Dimri AP, Bookhagen B, Stoffel M, Yasunari T (eds) Himalayan weather and climate and their impact on the environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29684-1CrossRef

Thayyen RJ, Dimri AP (2014) Factors controlling slope environmental lapse rate (SELR) of temperature in the monsoon and cold-arid glaciohydrological regimes of the Himalaya. Cryos Discuss 6:5645–5686

Thayyen RJ, Dimri AP (2018) Slope Environmental Lapse Rate (SELR) of temperature in the monsoon regime of the western Himalaya front. Environ Sci. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2018.00042CrossRef

Thyer N (1985) Looking at western Nepal’s climate. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 66(6):645–650CrossRef

United Nations (2022) The sustainable development goals report 2022. United Nations Publications, New York, pp 1–68

Wester P, Mishra A, Mukherji A, Shrestha AB (2019) The Hindu Kush Himalaya assessment-mountains, climate change, sustainability and people. Springer, ChamCrossRef

Yan L, Liu X (2014) Has climatic warming over the Tibetan Plateau paused or continued in recent years? J Earth Ocean Atmos Sci 1:13–28

Yan L, Liu Z, Chen G, Kutzbach JE, Liu X (2016) Mechanisms of elevation-dependent warming over the Tibetan Plateau in quadrupled CO₂ experiments. Clim Change 135:509–519CrossRef

Zhao K, Peng D, Gu Y, Luo X, Pang B, Zhu Z (2022) Temperature lapse rate estimation and snowmelt runoff simulation in a high-altitude basin. Sci Rep 12(1):13638. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18047-5CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Title: Spatial and seasonal patterns of temperature lapse rate along elevation transects leading to treelines in different climate regimes of the Himalaya
Authors: Rajesh Joshi
Ninchhen Dolma Tamang
Wagmare Balraju
S. P. Singh
Publication date: 06-07-2024
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Biodiversity and Conservation / Issue 12/2024
Print ISSN: 0960-3115
Electronic ISSN: 1572-9710
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-024-02879-w

Data synthesis for biodiversity science: a database on plant diversity of the Indian Himalayan Region

Original Research

Predicting the patterns of plant species distribution under changing climate in major biogeographic zones of mainland India

Original Research

A systematic review on the potential impact of future climate change on India’s biodiversity using species distribution model (SDM) studies: trends, and data gaps

Review Paper

The composition and phenology of butterflies are determined by their functional trait in Indian tropical dry forests

Original Research

Predicting tipping points of vegetation resilience as a response to precipitation: Implications for understanding impacts of climate change in India

Original Research

Biodiversity responses to climate change – a sustainable development perspective from India

Editorial