News
25.09.2024
A decade of Collaboration for High Altitude Climate Change Impacts on Treeline Ecotones Research in Nepal Himalaya
The Institute of Soil Science and Geomorphology, Tübingen University is continuing its research collaboration to study the sensitivity and responses of treeline ecotones in the Nepal Himalaya to climate warming (TREELINE-II). This research is a continuation of the previous phase, TREELINE-I, which was initiated in 2013 in the Rolwaling Valley of Central Nepal. With new funding support from the German Research Foundation (DFG), TREELINE-II, the second phase of treeline research in the Himalaya, began in 2023. Based on the findings from the previous phase of the research, TREELINE-I, and global treeline research, TREELINE-II has shifted its focus to the role of the Krummholz zone in the contrasting Himalayan treeline response to climate change.
Using state-of-the-art methods, this collaborative research aims to test the following hypotheses: H1: Climate change leads to diverging spatial responses of Krummholz and non-Krummholz treelines due to ecosystem-driven feedback mechanisms, and H2: Climate change leads to divergent temporal responses within treeline ecotones due to climate-driven species-specific growth dynamics.
As a collaborative partner in the TREELINE-II research project, the Research Centre for Applied Science and Technology (RECAST) at Tribhuvan University (TU), Nepal, recently published a newsletter highlighting the value of more than a decade of research collaboration with Tübingen University (link to the report). The collaboration activities are explicitly discussed in the ongoing research project on the "Sensitivity and Responses of Treeline Ecotones in the Nepal Himalayas to Climate Warming (TREELINE-II)" in chapter 6 of the newsletter. Acknowledging the previous phase of treeline research, the report mentions that the current phase of the research is being implemented at multiple treeline sites, i.e., Gaurishankar Conservation Area (GCAP) in Dolakha district (Rolwaling Valley) and Langtang National Park (Langtang Valley) in Nepal.
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