Abstract
India has 64 Mha under forests, of which 72% are tropical moist deciduous, dry deciduous, and wet evergreen forest. Projected changes in temperature, rainfall, and soil moisture are considered at regional level for India under two scenarios, the first involving greenhouse gas forcing, and the second, sulphate aerosols. Under the former model, a general increase in temperature and rainfall in all regions is indicated. This could potentially result in increased productivity, and shift forest type boundaries along attitudinal and rainfall gradients, with species migrating from lower to higher elevations and the drier forest types being transformed to moister types. The aerosol model, however, indicates a more modest increase in temperature and a decrease in precipitation in central and northern India, which would considerably stress the forests in these regions.
Although India seems to have stabilized the area under forest since 1980, anthropogenic stresses such as livestock pressure, biomass demand for fuelwood and timber, and the fragmented nature of forests will all affect forest response to changing climate. Thus, forest area is unlikely to expand even if climatically suitable, and will probably decrease in parts of northeast India due to extensive shifting cultivation and deforestation. A number of general adaptation measures to climate change are listed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alcamo, J (ed.): 1994, IMAGE 2.0: ‘Integrated modelling of global change’, Kluwer academic Publishers, Dorderecht, The Netherlands.
Brandon, C., and Ramankutty, R.: 1993, ‘Toward an environmental strategy for Asia’, World Bank discussion Papers 224, Washington D.C.
Caratini, C., Fontugne, M., Pascal, J. P., Tissot, C. and Bentaleb, I.: 1991, ‘A major change at ca 3500 years BP in the vegetation of the Western Ghats in North Kanara, Karnataka’, Current Science, 61, 669–672.
Deshingkar, P., Bradley, P. N., Chadwick, M. J., Leach, G., Kaul, O. N., Banerjee, S. P., Singh, B. and Kanetkar, R.: Adapting to climate change in a forest-based land use system; a case study of Himachal Pradesh, India, Stockholm Environment Institute (IN PRINT).
FSI: 1994, ‘State of Forest Report 1993’, Forest Survey of India, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Dehra Dun, India.
FSI: 1988, ‘State of Forest Report 1987’, Forest Survey of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Dehra Dun, India.
Hulme, M., and Viner, D.: 1995, ‘A climate change scenario for assessing the impact of climate change on tropical rain forests’, A report prepared by the Climate Change Unit ( East Anglia, U.K.) for WWF (US).
IPCC: 1990, ‘Climate change: the IPCC impact assessment’, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
IPCC: 1991, ‘Climate change: the IPCC response strategies’, Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, Island Press, Washington DC.
Krischbaum, M.U.F. Cannel, M.G.R., Cruz, R.V.O. Galinski, W., and Cramer, W. P.: 1996, Climate change impacts on forests. In: Climate change 1995, Impacts, adaptation and mitigation of climate change: scientific-technical analyses. Cambridge University Press.
Lai, M., Cubasch, U., Vass, R. and Waszkewitz: 1995, ‘Effect of transient increase in greenhouse gases and sulphate aerosols on monsoon climate’, Current Science 69, 752–763.
Ledig and Kitzmiller: 1992, ‘Genetic strategies for afforestation in the face of global climate change’, Forest Ecology Management 50, 153–169.
Legates, D.R., and Willmott, C.J.: 1990, ‘Mean seasonal and spatial variability in gauge-corrected, global precipitation’, Int. J. Climatology, 10, 111–128.
Melillo, J. M., Prentice, I. C, Schulze, D, Farquhar, G. and Sala, O.: 1995, ‘Terrestrial ecosystems: Responses to global environmental change and feedbacks to climate’, IPCC WG I Second Assessment Report, Chapter 9, (in Press).
Murphy, J.M.: 1995, ‘Transient response of the Hadely Center coupled ocean-atmosphere model to increasing carbon dioxide Part I’, Control climate and flux correction J. Climate, 8, 36–56.
Murphy, J.M., and Mitchell, J.F.B.: 1995, ‘Transient response of the Hadley Center coupled ocean-atmosphere model to increasing carbon dioxide Part II’, spatial and temporal structure of response, J. Climate, 8, 57–80.
Myers, N.: 1991, ‘Tropical forests; Present status and future outlook’, Climatic Change, 19, 3–32.
Phillips, O.L., and Gentry, A.H.: 1994, ‘Increasing turnover through time in tropical forests’, Science, 263, 954–958.
Prentice, O.L., Cramer, W.,Harrison, R., Leemans, R., Monserud, R.A. and Solomon, A.M.: 1992, ‘A global biome model based on plant physiology and dominance, soil properties, and climate’, J. Biogeography, 19, 117–134.
Prentice, I. C., Sykes, M. T., Cramer, W. P.: 1993, ‘A simulation model for the transient effects of climate change on forest landscapes’, Ecological Modeling, 65, 51–70.
Ravindranath, N.H. and Hall, D.O.: 1994, ‘Indian forest conservation and tropical deforestation’, Ambio, 23, 521–523.
Ravindranath, N. H. and Hall, O. H.: 1995, ‘Biomass, energy and environment - a developing country perspective from India’, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Robinson, J.M.: 1994, ‘Atmospheric C02 and plants’, Nature, 368, 105–107.
Seebauer, M.: 1992, ‘Review of social forestry programmes in India’, GWB Gesselschaft Fur Walderhaltung and Waldbewirstschaftung GMBH, Michelstadst, Germany.
Singh, G., Wasson, R. J., and Agarwal, D. P.: 1990, ‘Vegetational and seasonal climate changes since the last full glacial in the Thar desert, Northwestern India\ Review of Paleobotany and Palynology, 64, 351–358.
Solomon, A. M. and Leemans, R.: 1990, ‘Climatic change and landscape ecological response: Issues and analysis’, pp. 293–316 In M. M. Boer and R. S. de Groot, eds., Landscape Ecological Impact of Climate Change, IOS Press, Amsterdam.
Solomon, A. M., Prentice, I. C., Leemans, R. and Cramer, W. P.: 1993, ‘The interaction of climate and land use in future terrestrial carbon storage and release’, Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 70, 595–614.
Solomon, A. M., Ravindranath, N. H., Stewart, R.B., Weber, M. and Nilsson, S.: 1996, Wood production under changing climate change and land use. In: Climate change 1995, Impacts, adaptation and mitigation of climate change: Scientific-technical analyses. Cambridge University Press.
Sukumar, R., Ramesh, R., Pant, R. K. and Rajagopalan, G.: 1993, ‘A dl3C record of late Quaternary climate change from tropical peats in southern India’, Nature, 364, 703–706.
Sukumar, R., Suresh, H. S. and Ramesh, R.: 1995, ‘Climate change and its impact on tropical montane ecosystems in southern India’, J. Biogeography, 22, 533–536.
Swain, A. M., Kutzbach, J. E. and Hastenrath, S.: 1983, ‘Monsoon climate of Rajasthan for the Holocene; estimates of precipitation based on pollen and lake levels’, Quat. Res., 19, 1–17.
Vasanthy, G.: 1988, ‘Pollen analysis of late quaternary sediments; evolution of upland savanna in Sandynallah (Nilgiris, South India)’, Review of Palaeobotany andPalynology, 55, 175–192.
Zuidema, G., van den Born, G. J., Alcamo, J. and Kreileman, G. J. J.: 1994, ‘Simulating changes in global land cover as affected by economic and climatic factors’, Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 76, 163–198.
Wigley, T.M.L.: 1994, ‘MAGICC version 1.2: user’s guide and scientific reference manual’, OIES/NCAR, Boulder.
WRI: 1992, ‘World Resources 1992–93’, World Resources Institute, Washington D.C., USA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ravindranath, N.H., Sukumar, R. (1998). Climate Change and Tropical Forests in India. In: Markham, A. (eds) Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Tropical Forest Ecosystems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2730-3_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2730-3_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5046-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-2730-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive