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The cascade of global trade to large climate forcing over the Tibetan Plateau glaciers.

ABSTRACT: Black carbon (BC) aerosols constitute unique and important anthropogenic climate forcers that potentially accelerate the retreat of glaciers over the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau (HTP). Here we show that a large amount of BC emissions produced in India and China-a region of BC emissions to which the HTP is more vulnerable compared with other regions-are related to the consumption of goods and services in the USA and Europe through international trade. These processes lead to a virtual transport pathway of BC from distant regions to the HTP glaciers. From a consumption perspective, the contribution from India to the HTP glaciers shows a rapid increasing trend while the contributions from the USA, Europe, and China decreased over the last decade. International trade aggravates the BC pollution over the HTP glaciers and may cause significant climate change there. Global efforts toward reducing the cascading of BC emissions to Asia, especially the Indian subcontinent, are urgently needed.

SUBMITTER: Yi K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6650455 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The cascade of global trade to large climate forcing over the Tibetan Plateau glaciers.

Yi Kan K Meng Jing J Yang Haozhe H He Cenlin C Henze Daven K DK Liu Junfeng J Guan Dabo D Liu Zhu Z Zhang Lin L Zhu Xi X Cheng Yanli Y Tao Shu S

Nature communications 20190723 1

Black carbon (BC) aerosols constitute unique and important anthropogenic climate forcers that potentially accelerate the retreat of glaciers over the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau (HTP). Here we show that a large amount of BC emissions produced in India and China-a region of BC emissions to which the HTP is more vulnerable compared with other regions-are related to the consumption of goods and services in the USA and Europe through international trade. These processes lead to a virtual transpor ...[more]

PMID: 31337754

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Project description:BackgroundMonitoring vegetation dynamics and their responses to climate change has been the subject of considerable research. This paper aims to detect change trends in grassland activity on the Tibetan Plateau between 1982 and 2006 and relate these to changes in climate.Methodology/principal findingsGrassland activity was analyzed by evaluating remotely sensed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data collected at 15-day intervals between 1982 and 2006. The timings of vegetation stages (start of green-up, beginning of the growing season, plant maturity, start of senescence and end of the growing season) were assessed using the NDVI ratio method. Mean NDVI values were determined for major vegetation stages (green-up, fast growth, maturity and senescence). All vegetation variables were linked with datasets of monthly temperature and precipitation, and correlations between variables were established using Partial Least Squares regression. Most parts of the Tibetan Plateau showed significantly increasing temperatures, as well as clear advances in late season phenological stages by several weeks. Rainfall trends and significant long-term changes in early season phenology occurred on small parts of the plateau. Vegetation activity increased significantly for all vegetation stages. Most of these changes were related to increasing temperatures during the growing season and in some cases during the previous winter. Precipitation effects appeared less pronounced. Warming thus appears to have shortened the growing season, while increasing vegetation activity.Conclusions/significanceShortening of the growing season despite a longer thermally favorable period implies that vegetation on the Tibetan Plateau is unable to exploit additional thermal resources availed by climate change. Ecosystem composition may no longer be well attuned to the local temperature regime, which has changed rapidly over the past three decades. This apparent lag of the vegetation assemblage behind changes in climate should be taken into account when projecting the impacts of climate change on ecosystem processes.

Dataset Information

The cascade of global trade to large climate forcing over the Tibetan Plateau glaciers.

Publications

The cascade of global trade to large climate forcing over the Tibetan Plateau glaciers.

Similar Datasets

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