Alpine vegetation community patterns in the Khumbu region, Nepalese Himalaya

• Published in: Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research
• Main Authors: Ruolin Leng, Stephan Harrison, Elizabeth A. Byers, Mahesh Magar, Harkrei Rai, Ram Raj Rijal, Karen Anderson
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2024
• Subjects: Alpine vegetation; Himalayan alpine zone; land cover classification; remote sensing; climate change; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Ecology; QH540-549.5; Antarctic and Alpine Research; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2024.2309686; https://doaj.org/article/453a5d6e31294f00a02f0c27fffaaf63

ABSTRACTThe Himalayan alpine zone (HAZ)—a high-altitude zone above approximately 4,100 m.a.s.l., is projected to experience strong eco-environmental changes with climate change. As plants expand their range in this region, other processes are likely to be impacted; for example, flows and stores of water. A first vital step in conceptualizing HAZ ecohydrology is to understand the distribution pattern of HAZ vegetation communities. Satellite remote sensing provides one means of doing so, but the often patchy distribution of alpine vegetation creates challenges when using coarse-grained satellite data whose pixels are typically coarser than the grain of vegetation pattern. Here we use fine spatial resolution satellite imagery from WorldView-2 (2 m2 per pixel) coupled with elevation model data from the Copernicus GLO-30 product to produce a land cover classification for the HAZ. Field data captured during in situ surveys in the Gokyo valley, Nepal, were used to drive and then test a random forest classifier. Grassy meadows and dwarf shrubs belonging to the Rhododendron and Juniperus families dominate the ecology of the alpine zone in this region, so we created three vegetation classes for mapping indicative major plant communities dominated by these species. We found that altitude and aspect were dominant drivers of vegetation distribution in the HAZ and that the average vegetation cover of Rhododendron spp. and Juniperus spp. reduces with increasing altitude, as expected. South- and east-facing slopes were dominated by Juniperus spp., whereas north- and west-facing slopes were dominated by Rhododendron spp., and the growth extent of Rhododendron spp. (between 4,010 and 4,820 m.a.s.l.) and meadow (between 4,010 and 4,680 m.a.s.l.) were vertically wider than that of Juniperus spp. (between 4,010 and 4,660 m.a.s.l.). Results from this study demonstrate the vegetation distribution pattern in HAZ at the plant community level and provide an impetus for further studies that seek to understand ecohydrological interactions ...