Impact of Climate Change on Plants in the Nepal Himalayas

Growing evidence shows that growth patterns, distribution range shifts, and modifications of adaptation strategies of plants fingerprint the impacts of climate change. Plants growing in the Himalayan mountains, one of the rapidly warming regions in the world, are crucial archives to detect and monitor the impact of climate change on vegetation structure and functions. In the present chapter, we provide a brief overview of the findings and the issues that need to be explored to improve the predictability of plants’ responses to climate change. As shown by previous studies, regeneration, growth patterns, the distribution range of woody plants, and their associated functional traits strongly track climate change records. However, their responses are site- and species-specific, as some species benefit from a warming climate while others experience negative feedback caused by warming-induced moisture stress. Such findings highlighted that plants respond to a climate in a complex way, particularly along a broad bioclimatic gradient. Based on existing knowledge, future studies need to explore how ecological processes modify with changing climates to better understand their impact on ecosystem functioning.