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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Climate Affect on Plants and Animals
Biomes and Ecoregions
Topography Influence on Plants and Animals
Factors that Influence Vegetation and Wildlife
Environmental Threats
How Climate Affects Plants and Animals:
In the Himalayas, climate change is having a profound impact on the region's plants and animals. Rising temperatures and shifting weather patterns are causing changes in vegetation zones and wildlife distribution. Many alpine and cold-adapted plant species are experiencing habitat loss as snow and glaciers melt at an accelerated rate, pushing them to higher elevations to find suitable conditions. Animals, such as snow leopards and Himalayan tahr, are also facing challenges as their prey species and habitats are affected. Some species are adapting by altering their behavior, like changing migration patterns, while others are facing increased competition and potential conflicts with humans as they move to lower altitudes in search of resources. Overall, the rate of climate change in the Himalayas is outpacing the ability of many species to adapt, leading to increased vulnerability and potential biodiversity loss in the region. Conservation efforts and sustainable practices are critical to help mitigate these impacts.
https://wwf.panda.org/discover/knowledge_hub/where_we_work/eastern_himalaya/threats/climate/
Biomes and Ecoregions
Within the Himalayan Mixed Forests & Grasslands bioregion there are 7 smaller ecoregions that cover a total of 35.5 hectares of land. The seven ecoregions are Eastern Himalayan Subalpine Conifer Forests, Eastern Himalayan Broadleaf Forests, Himalayan Subtropical Pine Forests, Terai-Duar Savanna and Grasslands, Himalayan Subtropical Broadleaf Forests, Western Himalayan Subalpine Conifer Forests, and the Western Himalayan Broadleaf Forests.
Due to the variation in elevation and precipitation, the Himalayan vegetation has classified the biomes into four main groups. Tropical, subtropical, temperate, and alpine. A wide variety of plants and vegetation thrive along the mountains at different altitudes which contributes to the distribution of plant life. In the higher altitudes of the Western and Eastern Himalayans is where the alpine zone is located; abundant with moist vegetation. Flowering plants can also be found at these high altitudes while mosses and lichen grow lower within the alpine zone where they can thrive in the shaded areas and high humidity. As the tropical evergreen rainforest is more limited to the Eastern and Central Himalayans.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Himalayas/Plant-life
How Topography Influences the Distribution of Plants and Animals
Because Nepal's climate and altitude change so drastically throughout the region there is a wide variety of plants and animals in the region especially in the Himalayas. Because of the many different extremes Nepal can have in the region, Nepal is home to over 6,500 flowering plants alone, 181 mammal, 862 bird, and 640 butterfly species. Although Nepal only takes up 0.9% of the total surface area in the world, it is home to nearly 5% of the mammalian species.
Some examples of different species you’d find in the Himalayan mountains include the Snow Leopard, Himalayan Yak, Musk Deer, Himalayan Black Bear, and Western Tragopan. These species have certain adaptations that allow them to survive in the colder climate of the Himalayan mountains and their peaks versus the different species of wildlife that live more in the valleys and tropics of Nepal where it is warmer. Some of the species that live in the warmer valleys and tropics include the Bengal Fox, Bengal Tiger, Asian Elephant, and Tibetan Wolf.
The wide variety of climate and topography in Nepal especially in the Himalayas makes it home to such a wide variety of plants that have such different and unique climate needs as well. Some examples of plants you would find in the colder climate of the Himalayas include the Himalayan Screw Pine, Evergreen tree, Junipers, Dwarf Rhododendrons, Bell Heathers and Stunted Willows. There is less plant life the further up you go in the Himalayan mountains towards it’s peaks due to the cold temperatures and snow on the ground making it harder for plants to grow. However, in the tropics and valleys of Nepal a plethora of thousands of different plants grow. Some of the most common include the Chilaune, Chestnut, Oak, Alder, Lakuri, Mongolia Prunus and Bamboo.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-animals-found-in-nepal.html
https://himachaltourism.gov.in/flora-fauna/
https://wildearthallies.org/thewildfund-2/asian-elephant-in-bardia-national-park-nepal/
https://sujoyrdas.blogspot.com/2020/04/rhododendrons-of-himalaya.html
http://greathimalayannationalpark.com/alpine-zone/
Factors that Influence Vegetation and Wildlife
Nepal contains a diverse vegetation and wildlife that are influenced by a great many factors. Apart from climate effects on vegetation, topography, altitude, and soil composition play a major role on what grows in Nepal. Nepal’s topography ranges from the towering Himalayas to lowland plains. The wildlife and general vegetation vary greatly between the Himalayan region and the general lowlands of Nepal. This idea also carries over to the types of soil that can be found at both of these topographies. You can find more alluvial soil in areas near the lowland plains and make up a majority of the soil itself. However near the Himalayas and the valleys that accompany that region there is predominately lacustrine soil present in the region. Some human activities that affect the overall vegetation and wildlife are deforestation, agriculture, and overall urbanization. These human activities can sometimes irreversibly change the wildlife in Nepal. Deforestation in Nepal is becoming only more and more common as time goes on. Due to the soil type in Nepal farmers may only be able to use an area of land for agriculture only a couple of years before it starts to yield exponentially less crop. Urbanization is also destroying the traditional Nepal wildlife structures as the cities themselves are growing larger every year and are also yielding more emissions into the atmosphere.
https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Nepal-TOPOGRAPHY.html
https://hrpaneru.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/major-soils-of-nepal/
Environmental Threats
Climate change plays a very large role in environmental threats to the Himalayan region. The glaciers of the Himalayas are melting twice as fast as they were 25 years ago. This melting of the ice combined with the slopes of the mountain range offers perfect opportunity for floods and landslides during monsoon season from June to September annually. This monsoon season demolishes farms and villages and it will continue to worsen through the years. In just June of 2023 there was a horrific flood in the country Nepal that left 25 dead and many more injured and missing. Pollution is also a very large issue as there are insufficient regulations in many construction sites and factories. Tens of thousands of people in Nepal alone are lost every year due to diseases caused by air pollution and there is simply not enough being done to lower these numbers. Another environmental threat would be habitat loss which is very prominent in Southern Asia. The cause of this in the Himalayas is largely the gathering of wood for fuel and hay for farms, in the eastern side where the very populous countries of India and Nepal are located. This large and dense population pressures the region to continue this rampant destruction.
https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/nepals-slopes-villages-brace-worsening-monsoon
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