| Affiliations: | |
| Project Leader: | Parveen Chhetri parveenkchhetri@tamu.edu Geography |
| Faculty Mentor: | Jeremy Johnson, Ph.D. |
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Meeting Times:
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Spring 2017: TBD |
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Team Size:
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3 (Team Full) |
| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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Members will be acknowledged with co-authorship on regional and national conferences, and future publications |
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Team Needs:
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GIS and Remote Sensing skills, statistics, and programing. |
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Description:
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The alpine treeline ecotone is an important component of high altitude mountain ecosystems and plays a vital role in the life of indigenous people, conserves natural resources, maintains biological diversity, controls the geo-hydrological cycle, and provides other ecosystem benefits. However, treeline advance would fragment the current continuous expanses of alpine heath, change the distribution pattern of alpine species, increase the risk of species extinction, and change the structure and function of the alpine ecosystem. The Himalaya has one of the highest positioned treelines in the world and recent studies have indicated treeline advance due to recent temperature increases in the region. In the Nepal Himalaya, only a few scientific studies have been carried out at treeline, and there is still a lack of consistent data on treeline position, nature and dynamics. Mapping of the treeline ecotone will help to detect both the current and historical position of the treeline ecotone. It will also help to differentiate climatic, anthropogenic and topographic treeline. We will use Remote sensing (RS) and Geographic information science (GIS) techniques to map the current treeline and spatial pattern analysis. |