Temperature and precipitation trends and their links with elevation in the Hengduan Mountain region, China

2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Xu ◽  
Y Jia ◽  
H Peng ◽  
C Niu ◽  
J Liu
Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4941 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
KAI WANG ◽  
WEI GAO ◽  
JIAWEI WU ◽  
WENJIE DONG ◽  
XIAOGANG FENG ◽  
...  

Recent studies have highlighted the underestimated diversity of the genus Diploderma Hallowell, 1861 in the Hengduan Mountain Region in Southwest China, but much of the region remains poorly surveyed for reptile diversity. In this study we describe two new species of Diploderma from the upper Jinsha and middle Yalong River Valley, based on evaluations of morphological, genetic, and distribution data. The two new species are morphologically most similar to D. angustelinea and D. vela, but they can be diagnosed from both recognized taxa and all remaining congeners by a suite of morphological features, particularly the distinct coloration of gular spots. Additionally, both new species either render other recognized species paraphyletic or are allopatric with respect to their morphologically similar congeners. Furthermore, we rediscover D. brevicaudum in the wild for the first time, which was known from historical museum specimens only. We estimate the phylogenetic position of D. brevicaudum within the genus Diploderma based on mitochondrial genealogy, and we provide an expanded diagnosis and comparisons against closely related congeners and provide a detailed description of coloration in life based on newly collected specimens. Our discoveries of the new Diploderma species further highlight the urgent conservation needs of the currently neglected hot-dry valley ecosystems in the Hengduan Mountain Region of China. 


Climate ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Dol Raj Luitel ◽  
Pramod K. Jha ◽  
Mohan Siwakoti ◽  
Madan Lall Shrestha ◽  
Rangaswamy Munniappan

The Chitwan Annapurna Landscape (CHAL) is the central part of the Himalayas and covers all bioclimatic zones with major endemism of flora, unique agro-biodiversity, environmental, cultural and socio-economic importance. Not much is known about temperature and precipitation trends along the different bioclimatic zones nor how changes in these parameters might impact the whole natural process, including biodiversity and ecosystems, in the CHAL. Analysis of daily temperature and precipitation time series data (1970–2019) was carried out in seven bioclimatic zones extending from lowland Terai to the higher Himalayas. The non-parametric Mann-Kendall test was applied to determine the trends, which were quantified by Sen’s slope. Annual and decade interval average temperature, precipitation trends, and lapse rate were analyzed in each bioclimatic zone. In the seven bioclimatic zones, precipitation showed a mixed pattern of decreasing and increasing trends (four bioclimatic zones showed a decreasing and three bioclimatic zones an increasing trend). Precipitation did not show any particular trend at decade intervals but the pattern of rainfall decreases after 2000AD. The average annual temperature at different bioclimatic zones clearly indicates that temperature at higher elevations is increasing significantly more than at lower elevations. In lower tropical bioclimatic zone (LTBZ), upper tropical bioclimatic zone (UTBZ), lower subtropical bioclimatic zone (LSBZ), upper subtropical bioclimatic zone (USBZ), and temperate bioclimatic zone (TBZ), the average temperature increased by 0.022, 0.030, 0.036, 0.042 and 0.051 °C/year, respectively. The decade level temperature scenario revealed that the hottest decade was from 1999–2009 and average decade level increases of temperature at different bioclimatic zones ranges from 0.2 to 0.27 °C /decade. The average temperature and precipitation was found clearly different from one bioclimatic zone to other. This is the first time that bioclimatic zone level precipitation and temperature trends have been analyzed for the CHAL. The rate of additional temperature rise at higher altitudes compared to lower elevations meets the requirements to mitigate climate change in different bioclimatic zones in a different ways. This information would be fundamental to safeguarding vulnerable communities, ecosystem and relevant climate-sensitive sectors from the impact of climate change through formulation of sector-wise climate change adaptation strategies and improving the livelihood of rural communities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (15) ◽  
pp. 8189-8198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Saffioti ◽  
Erich M. Fischer ◽  
Simon C. Scherrer ◽  
Reto Knutti

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 224
Author(s):  
Kai Wang ◽  
Jinlong Ren ◽  
Wenjie Dong ◽  
Ke Jiang ◽  
Jingsong Shi ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 4168-4185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjiv Kumar ◽  
Venkatesh Merwade ◽  
James L. Kinter ◽  
Dev Niyogi

Abstract The authors have analyzed twentieth-century temperature and precipitation trends and long-term persistence from 19 climate models participating in phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). This study is focused on continental areas (60°S–60°N) during 1930–2004 to ensure higher reliability in the observations. A nonparametric trend detection method is employed, and long-term persistence is quantified using the Hurst coefficient, taken from the hydrology literature. The authors found that the multimodel ensemble–mean global land–average temperature trend (0.07°C decade−1) captures the corresponding observed trend well (0.08°C decade−1). Globally, precipitation trends are distributed (spatially) at about zero in both the models and in the observations. There are large uncertainties in the simulation of regional-/local-scale temperature and precipitation trends. The models’ relative performances are different for temperature and precipitation trends. The models capture the long-term persistence in temperature reasonably well. The areal coverage of observed long-term persistence in precipitation is 60% less (32% of land area) than that of temperature (78%). The models have limited capability to capture the long-term persistence in precipitation. Most climate models underestimate the spatial variability in temperature trends. The multimodel ensemble–average trend generally provides a conservative estimate of local/regional trends. The results of this study are generally not biased by the choice of observation datasets used, including Climatic Research Unit Time Series 3.1; temperature data from Hadley Centre/Climatic Research Unit, version 4; and precipitation data from Global Historical Climatology Network, version 2.


1991 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Guojie ◽  
Y. Side ◽  
W. Fei ◽  
C Zhijian ◽  
H. Xiyi ◽  
...  

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