Recent warming and its risk assessment on ecological and societal implications in Nepal
A predominantly mountainous country Nepal has a complex climatic pattern that varies from tropical in the south (Terai region) to arctic in the north (Himalayas). The gradual rise in temperature in the mountainous region has attracted great interest among the scientific community in general over rec...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:e6c76b3ba1614280b5080d0cf8c1fa53 2023-06-11T04:09:55+02:00 Recent warming and its risk assessment on ecological and societal implications in Nepal Yam Prasad Dhital Shaofeng Jia Jianwu Tang Xingcai Liu Xuejun Zhang Ramesh Raj Pant Binod Dawadi 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/acc56e https://doaj.org/article/e6c76b3ba1614280b5080d0cf8c1fa53 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/acc56e https://doaj.org/toc/2515-7620 doi:10.1088/2515-7620/acc56e 2515-7620 https://doaj.org/article/e6c76b3ba1614280b5080d0cf8c1fa53 Environmental Research Communications, Vol 5, Iss 3, p 031010 (2023) temperature warming trend ecology elevation ecological impacts Nepal Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/acc56e 2023-04-23T00:34:51Z A predominantly mountainous country Nepal has a complex climatic pattern that varies from tropical in the south (Terai region) to arctic in the north (Himalayas). The gradual rise in temperature in the mountainous region has attracted great interest among the scientific community in general over recent years. However, recent warming in Nepal’s east-west and south-north temperature gradients and its implications for ecology and society based on facts and figures are still lacking. In this context, temperature data (1970–2016) of 76 meteorological stations from the Terai region to the Mountains were used in this study to analyze the annual and seasonal warming trends in the different physiographic regions of Nepal. We performed a hybrid analytical approach i.e. integrated statistical and theoretical tools to detect the warming trend and its ecological and societal implications across the country. The Eastern part of the country was found to be more warming than the Central and Western parts, showing an increased climatic sensitivity across the Khumbu (Mt. Everest region). The increasing trends of temperature have been found in all physiographic regions along an altitude gradient, i.e. Terai, Siwaliks, Lower Hills, and Upper Hills observed 0.15, 0.26, 0.68, and 0.57 °C per decade, respectively. Higher warming trend in Lower Hills than the Upper Hills showed that higher elevations experienced lesser degrees of warming trends than the lower elevations in the mountainous regions. Further, a higher warming trend was observed in the winter season than the other seasons in all regions except for Terai. Based on the warming trends in different physiographic regions, we also found a similar pattern of ecological impacts, where a higher warming region also experienced higher ecological impacts such as changes in water resources, phenology, etc. Lower Hills, Upper Hills, and Mountains experienced higher adverse impacts than the Terai and Siwaliks in the current global warming scenarios. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Global warming Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Environmental Research Communications 5 3 031010 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
temperature warming trend ecology elevation ecological impacts Nepal Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
spellingShingle |
temperature warming trend ecology elevation ecological impacts Nepal Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 Yam Prasad Dhital Shaofeng Jia Jianwu Tang Xingcai Liu Xuejun Zhang Ramesh Raj Pant Binod Dawadi Recent warming and its risk assessment on ecological and societal implications in Nepal |
topic_facet |
temperature warming trend ecology elevation ecological impacts Nepal Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
A predominantly mountainous country Nepal has a complex climatic pattern that varies from tropical in the south (Terai region) to arctic in the north (Himalayas). The gradual rise in temperature in the mountainous region has attracted great interest among the scientific community in general over recent years. However, recent warming in Nepal’s east-west and south-north temperature gradients and its implications for ecology and society based on facts and figures are still lacking. In this context, temperature data (1970–2016) of 76 meteorological stations from the Terai region to the Mountains were used in this study to analyze the annual and seasonal warming trends in the different physiographic regions of Nepal. We performed a hybrid analytical approach i.e. integrated statistical and theoretical tools to detect the warming trend and its ecological and societal implications across the country. The Eastern part of the country was found to be more warming than the Central and Western parts, showing an increased climatic sensitivity across the Khumbu (Mt. Everest region). The increasing trends of temperature have been found in all physiographic regions along an altitude gradient, i.e. Terai, Siwaliks, Lower Hills, and Upper Hills observed 0.15, 0.26, 0.68, and 0.57 °C per decade, respectively. Higher warming trend in Lower Hills than the Upper Hills showed that higher elevations experienced lesser degrees of warming trends than the lower elevations in the mountainous regions. Further, a higher warming trend was observed in the winter season than the other seasons in all regions except for Terai. Based on the warming trends in different physiographic regions, we also found a similar pattern of ecological impacts, where a higher warming region also experienced higher ecological impacts such as changes in water resources, phenology, etc. Lower Hills, Upper Hills, and Mountains experienced higher adverse impacts than the Terai and Siwaliks in the current global warming scenarios. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Yam Prasad Dhital Shaofeng Jia Jianwu Tang Xingcai Liu Xuejun Zhang Ramesh Raj Pant Binod Dawadi |
author_facet |
Yam Prasad Dhital Shaofeng Jia Jianwu Tang Xingcai Liu Xuejun Zhang Ramesh Raj Pant Binod Dawadi |
author_sort |
Yam Prasad Dhital |
title |
Recent warming and its risk assessment on ecological and societal implications in Nepal |
title_short |
Recent warming and its risk assessment on ecological and societal implications in Nepal |
title_full |
Recent warming and its risk assessment on ecological and societal implications in Nepal |
title_fullStr |
Recent warming and its risk assessment on ecological and societal implications in Nepal |
title_full_unstemmed |
Recent warming and its risk assessment on ecological and societal implications in Nepal |
title_sort |
recent warming and its risk assessment on ecological and societal implications in nepal |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/acc56e https://doaj.org/article/e6c76b3ba1614280b5080d0cf8c1fa53 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Global warming |
genre_facet |
Arctic Global warming |
op_source |
Environmental Research Communications, Vol 5, Iss 3, p 031010 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/acc56e https://doaj.org/toc/2515-7620 doi:10.1088/2515-7620/acc56e 2515-7620 https://doaj.org/article/e6c76b3ba1614280b5080d0cf8c1fa53 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/acc56e |
container_title |
Environmental Research Communications |
container_volume |
5 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
031010 |
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1768383941758156800 |