About
83
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Introduction
My research is related to forest ecology, climate change and its impacts studies. My research mainly focuses on the tree-rings and its multiple applications including treeline dynamics in Himalayas and adjacent regions in response to climate and other environmental changes; past long-term climate reconstructions (temperature, rainfall, drought, etc.). I am also engaging in environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies in Nepal.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
March 2009 - June 2016
July 2016 - July 2017
July 2017 - January 2021
Position
- PostDoc Position
Description
- Analyzing climatic response of the multiple tree species from central Himalaya to climate change and variability
Education
January 2013 - September 2016
Publications
Publications (83)
To study the long-term hydroclimate variability in the Satluj Basin, streamflow data was reconstructed using tree-ring width datasets from multiple taxa available from the Kullu Valley, western (Indian) Himalaya. Five ring-width tree-ring chronologies of three conifer tree taxa (Abies pindrow, Cedrus deodara, and Pinus roxburghii) significantly cor...
Background
Shrubs have been expanding on the alpine meadows of the Tibetan Plateau (TP).
Aim
However, the effects of interactions between shrub size and soil depth on soil organic carbon (SOC) remain unclear.
Methods
In this study, we selected alpine meadows encroached by Lonicera rupicola , Potentilla fruticosa , and Caragana erinacea , establis...
Rivers in the Himalayan and adjacent mountain regions are the lifelines of over 1 billion people and are the backbone of civilizations therein. The short gauge records of Nepal do not provide a sufficient time window to understand the natural variations in river discharge from a long-term climate perspective. By developing a network of over 100 tre...
The Himalayas experienced long-term climate changes and recent extreme weather events that affected plant growth and the physiology of tree species at high-elevation sites. This study presents the first statistically robust δ ¹⁸ O TR chronologies for two native pine species, Pinus roxburghii , and Pinus wallichiana , in the lower Nepalese Himalaya....
The Hindu Kush Himalaya region is experiencing rapid climate change with adverse impacts in multiple sectors. To put recent climatic changes into a long-term context, here we reconstructed the region’s climate history using tree-ring width chronologies of climate-sensitive Cedrus deodara and Pinus gerardiana. Growth-climate analysis reveals that th...
The escalating impact of climate change on global terrestrial ecosystems demands a robust prediction of the trees' growth patterns and physiological adaptation for sustainable forestry and successful conservation efforts. Understanding these dynamics at an intra-annual resolution can offer deeper insights into tree responses under various future cl...
The impacts of rapid climate change in the Himalayan region on growth and sensitivity of tree species across their entire elevation distribution range are not well understood. This study investigates the growth and climate sensitivity of the endemic species Himalayan silver fir (Abies spectabilis, D.Don) along an elevation gradient in the sub-alpin...
The cryosphere of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) is an important source of water for maintaining ecosystem health, supporting biological diversity, and providing ecosystem services (very high confidence). This biodiversity-rich region – 40% of which is under protected area coverage – is characterised by interconnected and diverse ecosystems. Sixty p...
We reconstructed summer (June–September) minimum temperature for eastern Nepal over the past 288 years (1733–2020 CE), using a total tree-ring width chronology of Himalayan Larch (Larix griffithiana (Lindl. and Gord.)) from Kanchanjunga Conservation Area (KCA). This study is the first minimum temperature reconstruction for the eastern Himalaya regi...
The Nepal Himalaya is experiencing a higher temperature rise with erratic rainfall and more drought events in recent decades. Alpine treelines are proven bio-indicator and bio-monitor to understand the environmental impacts at high elevation. This chapter provides an overview of studies conducted at treelines of the Nepal Himalaya. Treeline elevati...
The precipitation in the Kumaun-Gharwal (Uttarakhand) Himalaya (KGH) is predominantly regulated by the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) and has been declining over the last century. However, because of limited historical data, it is difficult to place this recent decreasing trend in the context of pre-anthropogenic influences and understand a fuller ran...
Climate change will have a strong influence on vegetation, particularly on the transition zone communities such as the treeline ecotone. The population structure and regeneration dynamics of long-lived treeline species can be utilized as an indicator of climate change and its impacts on forest vegetation. To understand the population dynamics of th...
Changing climate can strongly affect tree growth and forest productivity. The dendrochronological approach to assessing the impact of climate change on tree growth is possible through climate–growth correlation analysis. This study uses an individual tree-based approach to model Pinus wallichiana (P. wallichiana) radial growth response to climate a...
Climate change in the Himalaya region has impacted diverse sectors; among them, forest and biodiversity in the region are highly vulnerable. However, how diverse forest species in the region are responding to ongoing rapid climate change are still less comprehensively understood. Therefore, present study was carried out with aims to know the climat...
Key message
The growth of Shorea robusta is positively correlated with temperature, whereas the relation to moisture is weak.
Abstract
Tree-ring analyses provide a rich archive of information on environmental attributes affecting tree growth. Tree-ring studies conducted so far have mostly focused on temperate species, and research on tropical tree...
The Karnali River is one of the major transboundary rivers of the Nepalese central Himalaya and a major tributary of the Ganges River. In order to investigate regional historical hydroclimate variability, we compiled eleven tree ring-width chronologies based on 354 exactly dated tree cores from five coniferous species for the Karnali River catchmen...
Tropical forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle and climate regulation. However, our understanding of how Asian tropical forest growth responds to climatic variations is still limited. We developed tree ring-width chronologies of Toona ciliata from 90 trees (139 cores) from two study regions in the tropical/subtropical forests in...
Meconopsis punicea is an iconic ornamental and medicinal plant whose natural habitat has degraded under global climate change, posing a serious threat to the future survival of the species. Therefore, it is critical to analyze the influence of climate change on possible distribution of M. punicea for conservation and sustainable utilization of this...
The Indian summer monsoon (ISM) has a changing pattern in terms of strength and duration across the Indian subcontinent in the last few centuries. Tree-ring δ18O records from the Himalayan region are a reliable proxy to capture the signal of hydroclimatic and drought variability signal of the Indian monsoon season. Here we assessed the six tree-rin...
Identification of high altitudinal vegetation dynamics using remote sensing is important because of the complex topography and environment in the Himalayas. Langtang National Park is the first Himalayan park in Nepal representing the best area to study vegetation change in the central Himalaya region because of the high altitudinal gradient and rel...
The Indian summer monsoon (ISM) has a changing pattern in terms of strength and duration across the Indian subcontinent in the last few centuries. Tree-ring δ18O records from the Himalayan region are a reliable proxy to capture the signal of hydroclimatic and drought variability signal of the Indian monsoon season. Here we assessed the six tree-rin...
Background
The Himalayas have been experiencing a higher rate of temperature increase than the global average. How such climate warming and changes in the precipitation regime may affect the growth responses of individual tree species is little known but is required so that adequate projections of future distributions and management plans can be fo...
The western Himalayan region in northern Pakistan is one of the most sensitive hotspots to climate change, due to the rapidly increasing population and delicate mountainous ecosystem. The relatively limited observed instrumental record impedes our understanding of long-term climate variability and their assessment. Using standard dendrochronologica...
To understand inter-annual to decadal summer monsoon precipitation variations in Myanmar, we developed new tree-ring chronologies of Tectona grandis (teak) from three sampling sites in north-central Myanmar where the climatic proxy is sparse. A regional chronology (spanning 1700–2016) derived from three site chronologies showed a strongly positive...
Aims
Rapid warming at high altitudes may lead to a higher sensitivity in tree growth to temperature. The key factors constraining tree radial growth and to what extent regional tree growth has suffered from climatic changes are unclear.
Methods
Tree-ring width data were collected from 73 sites across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), including three...
Mountain forest ecosystems provide us with life-supporting ecosystem services that are valuable for local, regional, and global communities. Ecological niche-based models have been used extensively, with remarkable success, in understanding the influence of climate change on potential distribution of species. In this study, we used maximum entropy...
Climate warming is expected to positively alter upward and poleward treelines which are controlled by low temperature and a short growing season. Despite the importance of treelines as a bioassay of climate change, a global field assessment and posterior forecasting of tree growth at annual scales is lacking. Using annually resolved tree‐ring data...
Changes in the global temperature and precipitation regime have been significantly driving species responses, notably in sensitive areas such as the Himalayas. By conducting a study at two high altitude (3200–4100 m) valleys (Langtang and Tsum) situated in the central part of the Nepal Himalayas, we presented tree-ring width site chronologies for t...
To develop a high-resolution paleoclimate proxy record facilitating adaptation measures on drought impacts, we constructed a regional composite tree-ring chronology of teak (Tectona grandis) by combining three local site chronologies from southern Myanmar. Our regional tree-ring record is strongly correlated with the November–April self-calibrated...
Tree rings are widely used to reconstruct past climates in regions where observational records of climate are short. In this study, we developed a 294 years-long (1718–2011 CE) ring-width chronology of the Himalayan Silver fir (Abies spectabilis (D.Don, Spach)) from Humla district in western Nepal to reconstruct winter minimum temperature for the r...
Climate change may lead to alterations in tree growth and carbon cycling. Interpreting the response of forest growth to climate change requires an understanding of the temporal and spatial patterns of seasonal climatic influences on the growth of tree species. However, the effects of climate change on pine forest dynamics in tropical region of Thai...
The Himalayan region has already witnessed profound climate changes detectable in the cryosphere and the hydrological cycle, already resulting in drastic socio-economic impacts. We developed a 619-yea-long tree-ring-width chronology from the central Nepal Himalaya, spanning the period 1399–2017 CE. However, due to low replication of the early part...
Invasive alien species have taken attention as one of the significant threats to biodiversity worldwide. The ongoing climate change is likely to exacerbate the problem by opening up favorable environments for invasion, putting the ecological, environmental and socio-economic state into a stake. The assessment of the potential impacts of invasive sp...
This study presents the potential of a conifer species (Abies spectabilis D. Don) to reconstruct fire history by using dendro chronological technique along with thedendroclimatic response in Langtang National Park, Central Himalaya of Nepal. For the fire history reconstruction, altogether eight cross-sections samples from fire affected eight trees...
Western Nepal has experienced a severe drought in the past two decades, but observation records
across Nepal are too short to place the recent drought in a longer context to understand the full range of
natural variability in the climate system. In the present study we have collected tree core samples of Tsuga
dumosa from two sites, Chhetti and Ran...
Many tropical species are not yet explored by dendrochronologists. Sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn.) is an ecologically important and economically valuable tree species which grows in the southern plains and mid-hills of Nepalese Central Himalayas. Detailed knowledge of growth response of this species provides key information for the forest management....
Many tropical species are not yet explored by dendrochronologists. Sal (Shorea robusta
Gaertn.) is an ecologically important and economically valuable tree species which grows in the
southern plains and mid-hills of Nepalese Central Himalayas. Detailed knowledge of growth response
of this species provides key information for the forest management....
Knowledge of the long-term frequency and intensity of drought events in an area is crucial since drought has adverse effects on natural ecosystems, food security, economy, society, and civilization. We developed a 405-year long (1611–2015C.E.) tree-ring chronology of Pinus wallichiana (Blue pine) from the Dolpo area of the trans–Himalayan region in...
Several forest management and conservation models exist throughout the world and Nepal is one of the pioneering countries to implement a community forestry programme. Studying the relationship between carbon stocks and biodiversity is important in understanding the trade-off between two major benefits of forest ecosystems, and working towards achie...
Plant growth ring is highly response to climate variables. Study was objectively done to show trend of climatic variables, assess the response to climate change on ring-width and correlate growth rate-diameter at breast height (DBH) relationship, growth rate- height relationship and DBH-height relationship. The core samples from 22 Pinus roxburghii...
The middle mountain of Nepal Himalaya is experiencing higher rate of temperature rise. A dendrochronological study was carried out to verify and record the impact of this warming by using the tree-cores of Pinus roxburghii Sarg. from Bicharichautara village of Syangja in Western Nepal representing a middle mountain of Himalaya with sub-tropical cli...
The study was conducted to evaluate the dendrochronological potential of Abies pindrow Royle from Indus Kohistan, KPK, Pakistan. Forty wood samples in the form of cores were obtained from twenty healthy trees. The results of quality control programs COFECHA showed that the all cores exhibited high correlation with master chronology i.e.0.411 to 0.7...
The study was conducted to evaluate the dendrochronological potential of Abies pindrow Royle from Indus Kohistan, KPK, Pakistan. Forty wood samples in the form of cores were obtained from twenty healthy trees. The results of quality control programs COFECHA showed that the all cores exhibited high correlation with master chronology i.e.0.411 to 0.7...
The people living in the agrarian societies develop different strategies in response to climatic variability and environmental uncertainties. Transhumant pastoralists in the Himalayas are among those who follow nature's rhythm of seasonality. The traditional practices built in group's experience might be useful to adapt with climate variability and...
Aims Temperature limit is the main cause of alpine treeline formation. Therefore, it is important to understand the response mechanisms of alpine treeline as well as their tree species under the global climate change. The present study focused on the spatio-temporal dynamics of treeline and ecological characteristics of the tree species in two tree...
Climate change in the Himalayas has shown multiple impacts in diverse sectors. Elevation shifting rate and the climate-growth relationship of Abies spectabilis (D. Don, Fir) was assessed in Myagdi, Nepal. Three quadratic plots in transect along the elevation gradient of each aspect were selected for core sampling. Thirty years’ climatic data was ta...
Reproducible climate reconstructions of the Common Era (1 CE to present) are key to placing industrial-era warming into the context of natural climatic variability. Here we present a community-sourced database of temperature-sensitive proxy records from the PAGES2k initiative. The database gathers 692 records from 648 locations, including all conti...
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...
p>Climate change has emerged as a global concern despite its differential impacts across geographical, social and economic gradients. Understanding perceptions of local communities towards climate change is important as it advances the knowledge, and is the driver of autonomous adaptation and behavioral responses. The livelihood of the agro-pastora...
Abstract: Climate change has emerged as one of the pressing problems of the world. The people living in the agrarian societies whose subsistence livelihood depends upon the direct utilisation of natural resources historically develop different strategies in response to climatic variability and environmental uncertainties. Transhumant pastoralists i...
Climatic treelines act as bio-monitors for impacts of climate change on high altitude biota. This dendroecological and dendroclimatological study was carried out at the treeline ecotone of two high mountain protected areas of the Nepal Himalayas: Annapurna Conservation Area and Shey-Phoksundo National Park, to assess the impact of climate change on...
Alpine treelines act as bio-indicators and bio-monitors of environmental change impacts in high elevation forests. This dendro-ecological study carried out in treeline ecotones in the Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park (SNP), eastern Nepal Himalaya, aimed to assess treeline dynamics and to understand the response of treeline forming Abies spect...
A study was undertaken to assess the upward shift of plant species and prepare baseline on biotic inventories in Nepal Himalaya. The study was conducted between November 2013 and October 2014. Field surveys were conducted in three protected areas: Kanchenjungha (east), Rara (west) and Api-Nampa (far-west). In each site, treeline and species limit w...
Population structure and distribution of vegetation are often affected by elevation induced climate variation in the Himalaya. This research aims at assessing the population structure and distribution of Abies spectabilis in three different elevation sites within the forests areas in Manang District of central Nepal. Vegetation sampling was conduct...
To investigate climate variability in Asia during the last millennium, the spatial and temporal evolution of summer (June–July–August; JJA) temperature in eastern and south-central Asia is reconstructed using multi-proxy records and the regularized expectation maximization (RegEM) algorithm with truncated total least squares (TTLS), under a point-b...
Treeline is an excellent bioindicator of climate change impacts on high altitude biota. However, very few studies on the biological impacts of climate change have been reported from Nepal due to the lack of baseline information. This study of treeline ecotones in Mt. Everest region, Nepal Himalaya aims to prepare baseline information on structure a...
We developed a new, 422-year long tree-ring width chronology (spanning AD 1591–2012) from Picea smithiana (Wall.) Boiss in Khaptad National Park, which is located in the far-western Nepalese Himalaya. Seasonal correlation analysis revealed significant indirect relationship with spring temperature and lead to the reconstruction of March–May average...
Treeline shifting in tandem with climate change has widely been reported from
various parts of the world. In Nepal, several impacts of climate change on the
physical environment have been observed, but study on the biological impacts
is lacking. This dendrochronological study was carried out at the treeline in
the high mountain slope of Kalchuman L...
Global climate change has multidimensional impacts with several biological fingerprints, and treeline shifting in tandem with climate change is a widely observed phenomenon in various parts of the world. In Nepal several impacts of climate change on physical environments have been observed. However, studies on the biological impacts are lacking. Th...
Past global climate changes had strong regional expression. To elucidate their spatio-temporal pattern, we reconstructed past temperatures for seven continental-scale regions during the past one to two millennia. The most coherent feature in nearly all of the regional temperature reconstructions is a long-term cooling trend, which ended late in the...
Past global climate changes had strong regional expression. To elucidate their spatio-temporal pattern, we reconstructed past temperatures for seven continental-scale regions during the past one to two millennia. The most coherent feature in nearly all of the regional temperature reconstructions is a long-term cooling trend, which ended late in the...
This study aims to know the current status of various aspects of tree ring (dendrochronological) studies in Nepal and assess its future prospects. The first tree ring research in the country was carried out in 1970s, after which a steady progress is seen till date with only 56 tree ring studies reported in published and unpublished research reports...
This study aims to understand the influence of climate on radial growth of Abies spectabilis growing in the plateau of mixed forest in Khaptad National Park in western Nepal Himalaya. Based on the dated tree-ring samples, 362-year long of this region was found to have dendroclimatic potentiality that was evident from the chronology statistics calcu...
This study aims to understand the influence of climate on radial growth of Abies pindrow growing in the plateau of mixed forest in Khaptad National Park in Western Nepal Himalaya. Based on the dated tree-ring samples, 362-year long tree-ring width chronology was developed dating back to 1650. The studied taxa of this region was found to have dendro...
This paper is aimed to study the tree line dynamics of Himalayan silver fir (Abies spectabilis D. Don) based on its tree-ring data and age stand distribution at Langtang National Park, Central Nepal. Climatic response on radial growth, recruitment of A. spectabilis and its age distribution are carried out. The average tree density of the species in...
Pinus roxburghii Sarz. makes sub-tropical dry forest in the Himalaya and considered a potential species for dendrochronological studies. In Kathmandu valley, its distribution seems to be fluctuating from historical time. This study was carried out to disclose the plantation history of P. roxburghii inside Kathmandu valley as well as to extend under...
Over 5,000 standing water bodies, including those <1 ha and spread in 74 districts of Nepal have been scanned on the topographic sheets (scale of 1:125,000). Majority of these lakes or ponds are either in the high altitudes (above 3,000 m) or in lowland Tarai (below 500 m). In a literature review we found over 163 research studies conducted since t...
A study was carried out at the treeline ecotone (3,730m-3,950m asl) of Langtang National Park in central Nepal with an aim to document the impact of climatic warming on ecological chracteristics. Three sampling sites were selected at Chaurikharka and Lauribina, where no serious anthropogenic pressure was noticed. The nearest meteorological station...
This paper is aimed to study the tree line dynamics of Himalayan silver fir (Abies spectabilis D. Don) based on its tree-ring data and age stand distribution at Langtang National Park, Central Nepal. Climatic response on radial growth, recruitment of A. spectabilis and its age distribution are carried out. The average tree density of the species in...
A study was carried out with an objective of long term monitoring on the impact of climate change in the high altitude forests in Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal. Two permanent plots (100 m × 100 m each) were established at Pangboche Yaren (4,050 m asl) and Debuche (3,850 m asl, timberline) in 2007. Six tree species were recorded in the plots with...
Main objectives of this study were to estimate annual fuelwood demand in Community Forest Users Group (CFUG),and annual sustainable supply of the same from Community Forest (CF). Study was done each one community forestof Terai and Hills; Shanti Community Forest (SCF), Saljhandi, Rupandehi (Terai) and Barangdikol Community Forest(BCF), Madanpokhara...
A study was carried out at the treeline ecotone (3,730m-3,950m asl) of Langtang National Park in central Nepal with an aim to document the impact of climatic warming on ecological chracteristics. Three sampling sites were selected at Chaurikharka and Lauribina, where no serious anthropogenic pressure was noticed. The nearest meteorological station...
