Abstract:
Under the contemporary climate change, the Himalaya is reported to be warming at a much higher rate than the global average. However, little is known about the alpine vegetation responses to recent climate change in the rapidly warming Himalaya. Here we studied vegetation dynamics on alpine summits in Kashmir Himalaya in relation to in situ measured microclimate. The summits, representing an elevation gradient from treeline to nival zone (3530-3740 m), were first surveyed in 2014 and then re-surveyed in 2018. The initial survey showed that the species richness, vegetation cover and soil temperature decreased with increasing elevation. Species richness and soil temperature differed significantly among slopes, with east and south slopes showing higher values than north and west slopes. The re-survey showed that species richness increased on the lower three summits but decreased on the highest summit (nival zone) and also revealed a substantial increase in the cover of dominant shrubs, graminoids, and forbs. The nestedness-resultant dissimilarity, rather than species turnover, contributed more to the magnitude of β-diversity among the summits. High temporal species turnover was found on south and east aspects, while high nestedness was recorded along north and west aspects. Thermophilization was more pronounced on the lower two summits and along the northern aspects. Our study provides crucial scientific data on climate change impacts on the alpine vegetation of Kashmir Himalaya. This information will fill global knowledge gaps from the developing world.
摘要:
在当代气候变化下,据报道,喜马拉雅的变暖速度远高于全球平均水平。然而,在迅速变暖的喜马拉雅地区,高山植被对近期气候变化的反应知之甚少。在这里,我们研究了克什米尔喜马拉雅高山山顶上的植被动态与原位测量的小气候的关系。峰会,代表从树线到nival区的海拔梯度(3530-3740米),于2014年进行了首次调查,然后于2018年进行了重新调查。初步调查显示,物种丰富度,植被覆盖度和土壤温度随海拔升高而降低。斜坡之间的物种丰富度和土壤温度差异显着。东坡和南坡的值高于北坡和西坡。重新调查显示,物种丰富度在较低的三个峰会上增加,但在最高峰会(狂欢节区)上减少,并且还显示出优势灌木的覆盖率大幅增加,类动物,还有Forbs.嵌套导致的差异,而不是物种周转,在峰会中对β多样性的影响更大。在南部和东部发现了较高的时间物种周转,而北部和西部则记录了高嵌套。在较低的两个山顶和北部地区,嗜热作用更为明显。我们的研究提供了有关气候变化对克什米尔喜马拉雅高山植被影响的重要科学数据。这些信息将填补发展中国家的全球知识空白。