Earth Sciences

Warming, increase in precipitation, and irrigation enhance greening in High Mountain Asia

F. Z. Maina, S. V. Kumar, et al.

Explore how High-Mountain Asia is experiencing one of the highest vegetation greenness increases on Earth. This study by Fadji Zaouna Maina, Sujay V. Kumar, Clement Albergel, and Sarith P. Mahanama uncovers the key factors driving this change, including precipitation, snow cover decrease, and irrigation.

00:00

Playback language: English

Index

Abstract

High-Mountain Asia exhibits one of the highest increases in vegetation greenness on Earth, influencing water and energy exchange between the land surface and atmosphere. This study uses multivariate remote sensing analysis (2003-2020) to identify the primary drivers of this greening, considering the complex interactions between the hydrosphere, biosphere, and cryosphere. Three main drivers were identified: 1) precipitation drives greening in mid-to-low elevation evergreen and mixed forests; 2) decreased snow cover enhances greening across most basins; and 3) irrigation induces greening in irrigated lands (Ganges-Brahmaputra and Indus basins).

Publisher

Communications Earth & Environment

Published On

Feb 28, 2022

Authors

Fadji Zaouna Maina, Sujay V. Kumar, Clement Albergel, Sarith P. Mahanama

Related Publications

Explore these studies to deepen your understanding of the subject.

Earth Sciences

Health and sustainability of glaciers in High Mountain Asia

E. Miles, M. Mccarthy, et al.

Earth Sciences

High precipitation rates increase potassium density in plant communities in the Tibetan Plateau

X. Li, M. Li, et al.

Earth Sciences

Escalating tropical cyclone precipitation extremes and landslide hazards in South China under global warming

X. Shi, Y. Liu, et al.

Medicine and Health

Maternal high-fat diet programs white and brown adipose tissue lipidome and transcriptome in offspring in a sex- and tissue-dependent manner in mice

C. Savva, L. A. Helguero, et al.

Listen, Learn & Level Up

Over 10,000 hours of research content in 25+ fields, available in 12+ languages.

No more digging through PDFs, just hit play and absorb the world's latest research in your language, on your time.

listen to research audio papers with researchbunny