Climate change is a real threat to many different species and ecosystems all over the globe. Mountain ecosystems are especially important because many riverine systems depend on the snow and glaciers at the peaks of these mountains. Ecosystems among the Himalayas have been a recent focus of climate change studies in order to assess the effects on these mountain ecosystems.
Studies have revealed that the Himalayas have warmed by 1.5 degrees from 1982 to 2006 with an average increase rate of 0.06 degrees per year and the average annual precipitation has increase by 163mm. This increase is considerably higher than the increase in global surface temperatures of 0.6 degrees from 1975 to 2005 with an average increase rate of 0.02 degrees per year [7]. This shows that increases in warming at high elevations are occurring at approximately three times the rate of the global average [6,7,10]. |
Other studies have performed projection experiments as to what climate might be in the next 70 or so years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected an increase of approximately 3 degrees by the 2050’s and an approximate increase of 5 degrees by the 2080’s with temperatures rising considerably more in the TP [7,10]. Dangerous climate change is recognised as a 2-3 degree increase in surface temperature [10]. This suggests that the estimated 5 degree temperature increase will cause substantial changes to the environment and will have a severe impact on global biodiversity. Precipitation is also projected to increase by 10 to 30% by the year 2080 in the TP [10]. There is also expected to be a shrinking or receding of snow ice and glaciers in polar climates [6,10]. The TP is also expected to suffer from this receding ice whereby a shrinking of 400,000 square kilometres (500,000 to 100,000 square kilometres) is expected by the year 2035 if current climate trends continue [10].
The alpine tree line is important for monitoring climate change due to shifts caused by changes in temperature. Predictions show that a 1 degree increase in temperature could result in a shift of approximately 160 metres in longitudinal elevation or a 150 kilometre latitudinal shift. There has been an upward shift in the tree line by approximately 14 to 19 meters in the western Himalayas over the past 10 years [10]. These rapidly changing climates will pose a large threat to the future of snow leopards if current trends continue. |