Editors:
Trans-disciplinary book on the Himalaya
Summarizes current knowledge of interactions between climate change and the dynamics of glaciers, hydrology, and vegetation
The book is co-edited by the vice president of the International Geographical Union (IGU)
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Table of contents (20 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Climate Change
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Front Matter
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Climate Change Impacts on Glaciers and Hydrology
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Front Matter
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Climate Change and Vegetation Dynamics
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Front Matter
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About this book
This book provides information essential for anyone interested in climate and environmental change of the Himalayan region, including land and resource managers, environmental planners, conservationists, environmentalists, geographers, climatologists, ecologists, and students. The book is unique in its coverage of the current understanding of the science of climate change in the Himalayan mountain system and of the major impacts on physical systems and ecosystems. The book gives an overview of the physical science basis of climate change and explains drivers and processes of glacier and vegetation dynamics.
The book covers relevant aspects of accelerated climate change observed in the Himalayan mountain system, and highlights the regional differentiation of climatic changes and associated environmental modifications. The focus is on climate variability and change, and how physical systems and ecosystems respond to climate change impacts. Consequences include impacts on physical systems such as glacier shrinkage, glacial lake outburst floods, altered hydrological characteristics, permafrost warming and thawing, and mass movements on slopes. Climate change is also a powerful stressor on ecosystems and induces range shifts of plant and animal species and alterations in terms of phenology, biomass, plant cover, plant group dominance and species composition. Thus, ecosystem structure and functioning will be strongly affected. The book has an introductory chapter followed by a section on climate change, a section on impacts on glaciers and hydrology, and a section on vegetation dynamics. Each section has several chapters presenting key concepts, major drivers and key processes of environmental change in the Himalayan region from different perspectives. Climate change impacts in the Himalaya have not been studied in much detail, and respective findings were not presented so far in a comprehensive overview. This book summarizes the current knowledge of interactions between climate change and the dynamics of glaciers, hydrology, and vegetation.Reviews
"The focus on elevation and the diversity of topics presented within this book represent its greatest strengths. … the book provides both breadth and detail on ongoing environmental changes in the Himalayas. … it would be suitable for researchers and graduate-level students working in the region on a variety of topics, or as a reference book for upper-level courses on mountains and environmental change." (Joseph Shea, Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 37 (3), August, 2017)
Editors and Affiliations
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Department of Geography, Delhi School of, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
RB Singh
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CEN Center for Earth System Research and, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Udo Schickhoff
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Department of Geography, Shaheed Bhagat, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
Suraj Mal
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Climate Change, Glacier Response, and Vegetation Dynamics in the Himalaya
Book Subtitle: Contributions Toward Future Earth Initiatives
Editors: RB Singh, Udo Schickhoff, Suraj Mal
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28977-9
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental Science, Earth and Environmental Science (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-28975-5Published: 16 June 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-80465-1Published: 30 May 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-28977-9Published: 06 June 2016
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVI, 399
Number of Illustrations: 47 b/w illustrations, 105 illustrations in colour
Topics: Physical Geography, Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts, Natural Hazards