scholarly journals Warming-induced unprecedented high-elevation forest growth over the monsoonal Tibetan Plateau

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 054011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunming Shi ◽  
Lea Schneider ◽  
Yuan Hu ◽  
Miaogen Shen ◽  
Cheng Sun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
High Elevation Forest

Tree growth across the Nepal Himalaya during the last four centuries

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 478-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
UK Thapa ◽  
S St. George ◽  
DK Kharal ◽  
NP Gaire
Keyword(s):  
Tree Ring ◽  
Tree Growth ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
Tree Ring Width ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Tree Ring Data ◽  
Instrumental Records

The climate of Nepal has changed rapidly over the recent decades, but most instrumental records of weather and hydrology only extend back to the 1980s. Tree rings can provide a longer perspective on recent environmental changes, and since the early 2000s, a new round of field initiatives by international researchers and Nepali scientists have more than doubled the size of the country’s tree-ring network. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of the current tree-ring width network for Nepal, and use this network to estimate changes in forest growth nation-wide during the last four centuries. Ring-width chronologies in Nepal have been developed from 11 tree species, and half of the records span at least 290 years. The Nepal tree-ring width network provides a robust estimate of annual forest growth over roughly the last four centuries, but prior to this point, our mean ring-width composite fluctuates wildly due to low sample replication. Over the last four centuries, two major events are prominent in the all-Nepal composite: (i) a prolonged and widespread growth suppression during the early 1800s; and (ii) heightened growth during the most recent decade. The early 19th century decline in tree growth coincides with two major Indonesian eruptions, and suggests that short-term disturbances related to climate extremes can exert a lasting influence on the vigor of Nepal’s forests. Growth increases since AD 2000 are mainly apparent in high-elevation fir, which may be a consequence of the observed trend towards warmer temperatures, particularly during winter. This synthesis effort should be useful to establish baselines for tree-ring data in Nepal and provide a broader context to evaluate the sensitivity or behavior of this proxy in the central Himalayas.

scholarly journals Linking deeply-sourced volatile emissions to plateau growth dynamics in southeastern Tibetan Plateau

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maoliang Zhang ◽  
Zhengfu Guo ◽  
Sheng Xu ◽  
Peter H. Barry ◽  
Yuji Sano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Growth Dynamics ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Fault System ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Southeastern Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Surface Uplift ◽  
Multi Stage ◽  
Geodynamic Processes ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

AbstractThe episodic growth of high-elevation orogenic plateaux is controlled by a series of geodynamic processes. However, determining the underlying mechanisms that drive plateau growth dynamics over geological history and constraining the depths at which growth originates, remains challenging. Here we present He-CO2-N2 systematics of hydrothermal fluids that reveal the existence of a lithospheric-scale fault system in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, whereby multi-stage plateau growth occurred in the geological past and continues to the present. He isotopes provide unambiguous evidence for the involvement of mantle-scale dynamics in lateral expansion and localized surface uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. The excellent correlation between 3He/4He values and strain rates, along the strike of Indian indentation into Asia, suggests non-uniform distribution of stresses between the plateau boundary and interior, which modulate southeastward growth of the Tibetan Plateau within the context of India-Asia convergence. Our results demonstrate that deeply-sourced volatile geochemistry can be used to constrain deep dynamic processes involved in orogenic plateau growth.

scholarly journals A 406-year non-growing-season precipitation reconstruction in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 2381-2392
Author(s):  
Maierdang Keyimu ◽  
Zongshan Li ◽  
Bojie Fu ◽  
Guohua Liu ◽  
Fanjiang Zeng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
Tree Growth ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Forest Growth ◽  
Drought Severity ◽  
Precipitation Reconstruction ◽  
Southeastern Tibetan Plateau

Abstract. Trees record climatic conditions during their growth, and tree rings serve as proxy to reveal the features of the historical climate of a region. In this study, we collected tree-ring cores of hemlock forest (Tsuga forrestii) from the northwestern Yunnan area of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau (SETP) and created a residual tree-ring width (TRW) chronology. An analysis of the relationship between tree growth and climate revealed that precipitation during the non-growing season (NGS) (from November of the previous year to February of the current year) was the most important constraining factor on the radial tree growth of hemlock forests in this region. In addition, the influence of NGS precipitation on radial tree growth was relatively uniform over time (1956–2005). Accordingly, we reconstructed the NGS precipitation over the period spanning from 1600–2005. The reconstruction accounted for 28.5 % of the actual variance during the common period of 1956–2005. Based on the reconstruction, NGS was extremely dry during the years 1656, 1694, 1703, 1736, 1897, 1907, 1943, 1982 and 1999. In contrast, the NGS was extremely wet during the years 1627, 1638, 1654, 1832, 1834–1835 and 1992. Similar variations of the NGS precipitation reconstruction series and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) reconstructions of early growing season from surrounding regions indicated the reliability of the present reconstruction. A comparison of the reconstruction with Climate Research Unit (CRU) gridded data revealed that our reconstruction was representative of the NGS precipitation variability of a large region in the SETP. Our study provides the first historical NGS precipitation reconstruction in the SETP which enriches the understanding of the long-term climate variability of this region. The NGS precipitation showed slightly increasing trend during the last decade which might accelerate regional hemlock forest growth.

Roof of the World: Tibet, Pamirs

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Searle
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Tien Shan ◽  
Palm Tree ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Wet Season ◽  
North West ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
The North ◽  
The World

The Tibetan Plateau is by far the largest region of high elevation, averaging just above 5,000 metres above sea level, and the thickest crust, between 70 and 90 kilometres thick, anywhere in the world. This huge plateau region is very flat—lying in the internally drained parts of the Chang Tang in north and central Tibet, but in parts of the externally drained eastern Tibet, three or four mountain ranges larger and higher than the Alps rise above the frozen plateau. Some of the world’s largest and longest mountain ranges border the plateau, the ‘flaming mountains’ of the Tien Shan along the north-west, the Kun Lun along the north, the Longmen Shan in the east, and of course the mighty Himalaya forming the southern border of the plateau. The great trans-Himalayan mountain ranges of the Pamir and Karakoram are geologically part of the Asian plate and western Tibet but, as we have noted before, unlike Tibet, these ranges have incredibly high relief with 7- and 8-kilometre-high mountains and deeply eroded rivers and glacial valleys. The western part of the Tibetan Plateau is the highest, driest, and wildest area of Tibet. Here there is almost no rainfall and rivers that carry run-off from the bordering mountain ranges simply evaporate into saltpans or disappear underground. Rivers draining the Kun Lun flow north into the Takla Makan Desert, forming seasonal marshlands in the wet season and a dusty desert when the rivers run dry. The discovery of fossil tropical leaves, palm tree trunks, and even bones from miniature Miocene horses suggest that the climate may have been wetter in the past, but this is also dependent on the rise of the plateau. Exactly when Tibet rose to its present elevation is a matter of great debate. Nowadays the Indian Ocean monsoon winds sweep moisture-laden air over the Indian sub-continent during the summer months (late June–September). All the moisture is dumped as the summer monsoon, the torrential rains that sweep across India from south-east to north-west.

­A new species of phytotelm breeding frog (Anura: Rhacophoridae) from the Central Highlands of Vietnam

Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4779 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-354
Author(s):  
JODI J. L. ROWLEY ◽  
DUONG THI THUY LE ◽  
HUY DUC HOANG ◽  
TRUNG TIEN CAO ◽  
VINH QUANG DAU
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Body Size ◽  
Dorsal Surface ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Evergreen Forest ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Central Vietnam ◽  
Hands And Feet ◽  
A New Species ◽  
High Elevation Forest

We describe a new species of phytotelm-breeding rhacophorid frog from central Vietnam. Gracixalus trieng sp. nov. is distinguished from all congeners by a combination of (1) body size medium (37.2–41.4 mm in five adult males), (2) snout rounded in dorsal and lateral views, (3) dorsal surface brown or yellowish with a darker brown interorbital crossbar and inverse-Y shape on the back, (4) throat and chest yellow or yellowish brown with pinkish mottling and belly and ventral surfaces of limbs including hands and feet pinkish, (5) tympanum and supratympanic fold distinct, (6) iris pale gold with darker gold radiating out from anterior and posterior edges of pupil, (7) majority of dorsal body and limb surfaces smooth in adults, with some individuals having sparsely distributed low, irregular tubercles, (8) nuptial pads on fingers I and II in adult males, and (9) eggs deposited as a tightly spaced array of non-pendent eggs on the wall of a phytotelmon. The species occurs in syntopy with G. lumarius. At present, Gracixalus trieng sp. nov. is known only from montane bamboo and evergreen forest (>1700 m) on Mount Ngoc Linh and adjacent peaks; and it is likely to be restricted to high-elevation forest with an estimated geographical distribution of <1000 km2. 

Evaporative water loss simulation improves models’ prediction of habitat suitability for a high-elevation forest skink

Oecologia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 192 (3) ◽  
pp. 657-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu-Ping Huang ◽  
Ruth E. Kearley ◽  
Kuan-Wei Hung ◽  
Warren P. Porter
Keyword(s):  
Water Loss ◽  
Habitat Suitability ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Evaporative Water Loss ◽  
Evaporative Water ◽  
High Elevation Forest

Propagating uplift controls on formation of low-relief, high-elevation surfaces in the SE Tibetan Plateau

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoping Yuan ◽  
Kimberly Huppert ◽  
Jean Braun ◽  
Laure Guerit
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Step Change ◽  
Loss Mechanism ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Horizontal Advection ◽  
Erosion Rates ◽  
Relief Surface ◽  
Deposition Processes ◽  
Three Rivers

&lt;p&gt;The SE Tibetan Plateau has extensive broad, low-relief, high-elevation surfaces perched above deep valleys, as well as in the headwaters of the three rivers (the Salween, the Mekong, and the Yangtze). However, understanding the presence of these low-relief surfaces is a long-standing challenge because their formation process remains highly debated. While alternate mechanisms have been proposed to explain the low-relief surface formation in this setting (e.g., drainage-area loss mechanism due to horizontal advection; Yang et al., 2015, Nature), a long-standing hypothesis for the formation of low-relief surfaces is by a step change in uplift and incision into a pre-existing, low-relief surface (Clark et al., 2006, JGR; Whipple et al., 2017, Geology).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The morphology of low-relief surfaces in the SE Tibetan Plateau is largely consistent with formation by a step change in uplift, but one problem with this model is that low-relief surfaces formed by a step change in uplift are relatively short-lived, since they are incised and steepened by erosion, which sweeps upstream at the response time of mountain ranges (in the order of several million years). Using a landscape evolution model that combines erosion, sediment transport and deposition processes (Yuan et al., 2019, JGR), we demonstrate that propagating uplift form large parallel rivers, with broad low-relief, high-elevation interfluves that persist for tens to hundreds of million years, consistent with various dated ages. These low-relief surfaces can be long-lived because the drainage areas in these interfluves are insufficient to keep up with rapid incision of the large parallel mainstem rivers. Our simulated features match various observations in the SE Tibetan Plateau: (i) low-relief surfaces are approximately co-planar in headwaters, and decrease in elevation smoothly from northwest to southeast across the plateau margin; (ii) &amp;#967;-elevation plots of the mainstem rivers are convex; (iii) low-relief surfaces have low erosion rates; and (iv) erosion rates are high in the mainstem rivers at the propagating margin.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals From ‘third pole’ to north pole: a Himalayan origin for the arctic fox

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1787) ◽  
pp. 20140893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoming Wang ◽  
Zhijie Jack Tseng ◽  
Qiang Li ◽  
Gary T. Takeuchi ◽  
Guangpu Xie
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Polar Region ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Fox ◽  
Low Latitude ◽  
Kunlun Mountain ◽  
The Himalaya

The ‘third pole’ of the world is a fitting metaphor for the Himalayan–Tibetan Plateau, in allusion to its vast frozen terrain, rivalling the Arctic and Antarctic, at high altitude but low latitude. Living Tibetan and arctic mammals share adaptations to freezing temperatures such as long and thick winter fur in arctic muskox and Tibetan yak, and for carnivorans, a more predatory niche. Here, we report, to our knowledge, the first evolutionary link between an Early Pliocene (3.60–5.08 Myr ago) fox, Vulpes qiuzhudingi new species, from the Himalaya (Zanda Basin) and Kunlun Mountain (Kunlun Pass Basin) and the modern arctic fox Vulpes lagopus in the polar region. A highly hypercarnivorous dentition of the new fox bears a striking resemblance to that of V. lagopus and substantially predates the previous oldest records of the arctic fox by 3–4 Myr. The low latitude, high-altitude Tibetan Plateau is separated from the nearest modern arctic fox geographical range by at least 2000 km. The apparent connection between an ancestral high-elevation species and its modern polar descendant is consistent with our ‘Out-of-Tibet’ hypothesis postulating that high-altitude Tibet was a training ground for cold-environment adaptations well before the start of the Ice Age.

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