Abstract
Western Himalaya is an important region in terms of its enriched biodiversity and immense ecosystem services (ESS). However, its biodiversity and ESS are under tremendous pressure from rapid population growth, developmental activities, unplanned urbanization, agricultural expansion, climate change, and the associated changes in land use and land cover (LULC). This study provides a systematic review of the composition and pattern of LULC (from existing literature) and the effects of LULC change on various ESS provided by the western Himalayan ecosystems. Despite being such a significant area, data and studies concerning the impacts of LULC change on the spatial distribution of ESS, focused particularly on the western Himalayan region are inadequately reported. Most existing studies indicate a general decrease in forest cover and an increase in forest fragmentation along with generally increasing trends in built-up areas, croplands, and barren lands. These results imply ecosystem degradation and a reduction in the potential for the sustainable flow of ESS from this region. In this respect, this study suggests that quantification and spatial mapping of ESS in the western Himalayan region is conducted.
Highlights
Land use refers to the utilization of land for different purposes, whereas land cover indicates the natural and artificial cover on the land surface
Under the Market forces (MF) and fortress world (FW) scenarios, they predicted that ecosystem services (ESS) in India will decrease by 14% and 26% compared to the 2011 values, respectively
As many as 28 ESS have been identified to be flowing out of the central Himalayan forest ecosystems at three distinct elevation levels, including eight provisioning services, nine regulatory services, four cultural services and seven supporting services [64]. While commercial exploitation such as large-scale infrastructure development and dam construction has historically been a primary cause of forest degradation in the entire Himalayan region including western Himalayan biotic province, chronic disturbances related to the harvesting of fuel wood and fodder, climate change, and changes in traditional land use practices have recently led to serious forest loss, degradation and significant effects on bird and other wildlife diversity [65]
Summary
Land use refers to the utilization of land for different purposes, whereas land cover indicates the natural and artificial cover on the land surface (e.g., natural vegetation, agriculture, bare earth, water bodies, and man-made structures). Several spatially explicit modeling approaches have been developed for ecosystem assessment [30,31] These approaches combine the potential effects of land use changes with vulnerability assessments and rely on ecological information to map, quantify, and value ESS across a landscape [32]. The watersheds of the western Himalayas are extremely important both for their biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide to the downstream densely populated north Indian plains This region faces severe challenges in terms of population explosion, intense natural resources extraction, and forest fragmentation resulting in rapid changes in land-use and land-cover pattern. Ecosystem services such as water security, nutrient cycling, climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and rural livelihoods are today under serious threat. Dynamics of LUCC and the impacts of developmental activities on ESS flow and sustainability in this rteogitohne .status and dynamics of LUCC and the impacts of developmental activities on ESS flow and sustainability in this region
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