Impacts of Global Warming on the Snow Leopard
Xiaotong Feng
1,*,† a
, Jiaxuan Li
2,*,† b
, Hanwei Liu
3,*,† c
and Jiahui Zhang
4,*,† d
1
The University of California, Davis, 95616 Davis CA California, U.S.A.
2
Shanghai Shangde Experimental School, 200001 Shanghai, China
3
Shanghai New Channel School, 200001 Shanghai, China
4
Jiangxi University of Technology High School, 330000 Jiangxi, China
*
Corresponding author
These authors contributed equally
Keywords: Global Warming, Snow Leopard, Glacial Melting, Reeline Shift Effects.
Abstract: The distribution of the snow leopard is around 12 countries where the elevation is between 3, 000-4, 500
meters with arid and semi-arid shrubland, grasslands, or steppes. As a top predator, the snow leopard plays
an important role in controlling the prey population and promoting biodiversity. However, global warming
caused by human activities is destroying the living environment of the snow leopard. In order to protect snow
leopards effectively, this study investigates the impacts of global warming on the living situation of the snow
leopard from four aspects. Primarily, glacial melting is discussed, where the retreating speed of many glaciers
in snow leopard's habitat and their prey is reduced. Subsequently, treeline shift effects are analysed, where
climate change results in treeline shift, and the forest ascending into alpine shrub and grassland which are
snow leopard's preferred habitats. In addition, extreme weather events are also evaluated, where global
warming brings the high frequency of extreme weather, decreasing the survival rate of the main prey of the
snow leopard. Eventually, the impacts of wetlands are demonstrated, where destruction of wetlands due to
global warming threatens the livestock the main prey and increases the competition between humans and
snow leopards. These results show the urgency of protecting the snow leopard.
1 INTRODUCTION
1
Global warming is the long-term increase of
temperature over the world since the pre-industrial
period caused by human activities such as the overuse
of fossil fuels. Over the last century, Global warming
has led to ocean acidification, treeline shift, sea-level
rise, and other environmental problems (Aryal,
2016). According to the observations, creatures are
very sensitive to climate. When climate change,
species will go extinct or colonize new habitats where
the climate becomes newly suitable (CNCCC, 2007).
For terrestrial biota, global warming will change soil
chemistry, e.g., leaching and erosion rate. In addition,
global warming results in species shifting at different
rate, i.e., communities often dissociate into their
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8509-8112
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7903-2050
c
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3036-381X
d
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3707-9299
component species. Additionally, unusual
assemblages of plants and animals would form since
species responded differently to climate change
(CNCCC, 2007).
As a typical species living in marginal habitats,
the snow leopards are deeply shrunk by climate
change. The snow leopard is distributed in 12
countries from the southern Himalayas, across the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the mountain in central
Asia. Most of the habitats of the snow leopard are arid
and semi-arid shrubland, grasslands, or steppes. They
live in places with the elevation between 3,000 and
4,500 meters, even up to 5,500 meters in the
Himalayas region (Conservation of Migratory
species of Wild Animals, 2020). Even though the
range of snow leopards is around 12 countries, it is
still under low density ranging between 4, 500-6000
Feng, X., Li, J., Liu, H. and Zhang, J.
Impacts of Global Warming on the Snow Leopard.
DOI: 10.5220/0011198000003443
In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics (ICBEB 2022), pages 249-253
ISBN: 978-989-758-595-1
Copyright
c
2022 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
249
individuals (Dubey, 2003). The snow leopard has an
important role in controlling the prey populations and
promoting biodiversity in ecological function.
Besides, it is essential for the protection area to gather
financial support (Dyurgerov, 2005). However, due
to the reduction of habitat and food, the number of
snow leopards continued to decrease significantly.
The main habitat of the snow leopard is the
Himalayan region, which is one of the most climate-
sensitive areas in the world. For example, the
temperature in the Himalayan region increased three
times than the general area from 1975-2005
(Farrington, Li, 2016). Owing to increasing
temperature, tree line shifts up, glacial melts and
extreme weather events appear which threatens the
living conditions of the snow leopard. According to
anticipation models, 10-30% of snow leopard habitat
in the Himalayas region will lose until 2050
(Dyurgerov, 2005). Besides, according to the dearth
of even anecdotal report in 2006, the conflict between
the snow leopard and human was common and a
growing problem due to living habitats loss
(Farrington, Tsering, 2019). Therefore, the
International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN) set the snow leopard as “Vulnerable”
(Dubey, 2003).
There were only a few passages that focus on the
impact of global warming on the snow leopard. In
order to bring the public’s attention to the current
difficulty and threats faced by the snow leopard, this
study will analyze the living situation of the snow
leopard from four perspectives: 1) tree line shift, 2)
glacial melting, 3) reduction in prey and increasing
conflict with human and 4) extreme weather.
2 IMPACTS ON SNOW
LEOPARDS
Global warming has resulted in a wide range of
changes in the globe, some of which have important
implications for distribution and survival of snow
leopards. This study specifically investigates four
changes: glacial melting, tree line shift, wetlands
decreasing, and more frequent extreme weather
events; and the corresponding impacts on snow
leopards.
2.1 Glacial Melting
With the rising temperature under climate change,
many glaciers in the snow leopard’s range have been
retreated. The IPCC AR5 report states that over the
last 10 years, the Asian mountains have been one of
the earth’s five regions that have lost their glacial ice
most (Fernandez-Gimenez, 2012), due in part to
constant and continuous warming process in these
regions. Over last 100 years, the warming extent in
Himalayas has been a great deal greater than global
average of 0.74℃ (Forrest, 2012). Furthermore, the
Tibetan Plateau, a primary region in the snow
leopard’s range, is one of the most sensitive areas
responding to climate change as the warming trend is
more pronounced with an increase in elevation
(Grace, 2002). Its increase in temperature was
approximately 0.16℃ from 1955 to1996, exceeding
the average increase in the northern hemisphere
(Harman, 2002).
As a result, the retreating speed of many glaciers
in snow leopard’s habitat are higher than other
regions (IPCC, 2007). As shown in Fig.1, the line
representing Himalaya falls most steeply among
other lines, which indicates that the retreat of
Himalaya glaciers is relatively rapid in comparison to
other mountain regions. Moreover, on the Tibetan
Plateau, the glacial area has reduced by 4.5% over the
last two decades (IPCC, 2013). Hence, time-released
water needed by snow leopards and their prey is
reduced, affecting the population of snow leopards.
Moreover, in the eastern and central Himalayas,
glacial melt associated with climate change has led to
the formation of glacial lakes in open areas behind
exposed end moraines. Plenty of these high-elevation
lakes are dangerous, and may result in glacial lake
outburst flood (GLOF) hazards, bringing catastrophic
consequences downstream (Harman, 2002). This
may potentially kill numerous livestock and even
blue sheep (Kazmi, 2021). The consequent decline of
prey may indirectly affect the snow leopards.
Figure 1: Rapid retreat of greater Himalayan glaciers
compared with the global average (IPCC, 2007).
ICBEB 2022 - The International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics
250
2.2
Tree Line Shift
The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees
are capable of growing. Tree line shift is usually a
result of human activities, e.g., grazing and
woodcutting. Nevertheless, previous studies have
proved that the transition of tree line has a strong
correlation with rising temperature (Körner, 2004);
(Liu, Chen, 2000), indicating that upward tree line
movement may also be a response of climate change.
In addition, Himalayan region is one of the most
pristine environments on earth. Therefore, it is least
affected by anthropogenic activities (Lovari, 2013),
which means that tree line shift is more likely to be a
response of warming.
Climate change results in tree line shift, directly
affecting snow leopard’s habitats. The upward shift
of tree lines means the forest ascending into alpine
shrub and grassland, which are snow leopard’s
preferred habitats. Fig. 2 shows that snow leopard
habitat is vulnerable to the climate-induced tree line
shift. It indicates that snow leopards may lose a
considerable number of habitats, and their
distribution may be affected greatly. It is observed
that in Himachal Pradesh in the Western Himalaya,
tree line is presently increasing in elevation at a rate
of 14–19 m/decade (Lovari, 2013). Owing to such
rapid upslope shift of tree lines and resultant
shrinkage of alpine zone, the snow leopard habitat in
higher Himalayas may be reduced by around 30%.
Snow leopard habitat may also shift northward, since
the habitat loss mainly occur along the southern edge
of the Himalayas, forcing snow leopards to migrate to
the north (Mahmood, 2019).
Figure 2: Vulnerability of snow leopard habitat in the Himalaya to treeline shift (Mahmood, 2019).
The upward movement of tree line will also lead
to the upslope shifting of various species that living
depend on or below the forest line. On this basis, it
can translate to the interspecific competition which is
a competition between organisms between two
different species. Common leopard, which is one of
the biggest threats for snow leopard, are chosen to be
a widely acceptable object for numerous researches.
It is one of the top predators in the world, which has
a preference for inhabiting in woodland while snow
leopard tends to live and hunt in cold and rocky area
which is almost above the tree line. As common
leopard can live up to 5200m whereas along the
Himalayan range down to 3000m is for snow leopard,
there has been an overlap in about 2200m between
the two species along the Himalayan range. This
Impacts of Global Warming on the Snow Leopard
251
overlap will worsen the situation of snow leopard in
aspects of loss of territories, interspecific killing and
competition in prey (Peters, 1990).
Since the habitats are occupied by common
leopard, which is larger, heavier and more adaptable
to environment change than those of snow leopard,
the habitats and population size of snow leopard will
be threatened badly. Besides, due to the diet overlap,
the niche breadth and spectrum of prey species of the
snow leopard are smaller than those of the common
leopard. All of those competitive factors will lead
snow leopard’s population to shrink or even to extinct
(Farrington, Li, 2016); (Peters, 1990).
2.3 Extreme Weather Events
It is reported that extreme weather events happened
in higher frequency and intensity because of climate
change. In Mongolia, severe winter snow disasters,
known as “dzud” are increasing in frequency (Shen,
2020). During dzud, deep snows often made livestock
unable to forage on grass, result in starvation and high
mortality rates of livestock. There were six dzud
events occurred in Mongolia during 1991 - 2010, a
number higher than the sum of events happened over
last 50 years, while the 2009-2010 dzud killed 20%
of Mongolia’s livestock (Shen, 2020). In addition, the
frequency of spring droughts and unseasonal spring
and summer snowfalls is higher. These events either
delay or reduce the growth of grass at the time when
nutritious grass shoots are most needed by livestock
that has recently given birth (Kazmi, 2021). Hence,
less livestock is available, leading to lower prey
availability, which can have severe impact to snow
leopards. Since snow leopard is a key stone species
which has function of controlling organisms’
population in high altitude area, the fluctuations of
prey number will bring significant influences
indirectly due to the potential impact on food chain.
Among all the affected prey species, blue sheep
can be one of the most common and representative
prey for snow leopard all over the world. Study shows
distributions and number of blue sheep have
decreased in past several years and will possibly
continue declining in the future which can translate to
the decrease of number of snow leopard. Climate
change leads to a low degree of overlap between blue
sheep and snow leopard. In addition, the reduction of
the main prey may lead snow leopard to broaden its
diet breadth with common leopard as well as other
carnivores such as Tibetan wolf, and the competitions
are adverse for snow leopards. Furthermore, the
decrease of wild prey can force snow leopard to
search for other kind of food sources such as livestock
of human, this can lead to a retaliation between
human and snow leopards. Therefore, the population
size of snow leopard will reduce (Farrington, Li,
2016); (Wang, 2006).
2.4 Wetlands
Wetland is a major ecosystem in the snow leopard’s
range, but it is also vulnerable to the climate change
due to slow adaptation to changing environments,
especially for alpine wetlands where warming is more
pronounced. On account of permafrost degradation
caused by climate change, the area of alpine wetlands
on the Tibetan Plateau has declined by 37% over
recent decades (Xu, 2007). Moreover, the level of
saline lakes increased at a rapid rate, inundating much
pastureland. As a result, many herding communities
reduced in size and had to move upslope, leading to
more competition between livestock and blue sheep.
As less food is available for livestock, its number
declined. This also contributed to more severe snow
leopard-human conflict (Kazmi, 2021).
3 CONCLUSION
In summary, this paper aims to investigate the effects
of climate change on the distribution of snow
leopards. The basic background about snow leopards
is that they mainly live in the region of the Himalayas
which is nearer to China. In this paper, the hypothesis
is the population of snow leopards will decrease due
to the global warming caused by climate change.
Based on our analysis, the shrink and upload of tree
line shifting will cause a decrease in the size of their
habitats which may trigger the decrease in
population. Glacial melting will cause a decrease in
water resources and flooding, which is the reason that
may intrigue the decreasing of snow leopards’
population. These effects can directly contribute to
the shrinking areas of snow leopards’ population,
limiting their distribution. Additionally, the decrease
in wetland and raising the saline lake enable the
edible water resources to disappear, i.e., the
population of preys (Himalayan tahr, blue sheep,
Siberian ibex) and snow leopards will be decreased,
which has the same function as such extreme weather
such as snow disasters and big storms. These events
will result in the interspecific competition and
reduction in prey. The effects of interspecific
competition are expressed by the distribution upload
shifting, for the snow leopards will avoid the conflict
to protect themselves or confront the conflict to gain
food. The reduction of prey, naturally caused by some
ICBEB 2022 - The International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics
252
geographic impacts mentioned before, will be
influenced by human activities. The food chains’
balance is broken. All of these reasons are led by
climate change and will result in decreasing of snow
leopards’ population and affecting the distribution of
snow leopards. This result responses to the
hypothesis and research question.
Species are already being impacted by
anthropogenic climate change, and its rapid onset is
limiting the ability of many species to adapt to their
environments. Climate change is currently affecting
19% of species listed as threatened on the IUCN Red
List of Threatened Species, increasing the likelihood
of their extinction including the snow leopards.
Therefore, reducing the impact of climate change and
protect the species is an important work for the
human.
Establishing the protected area is a method that
can contribute to the protection directly. Scientists
have already built some protected areas to protect the
population of snow leopards. One of the main
advantages of having nature reserves is that they
protect biodiversity and endangered species such as
snow leopards. Because enough biodiversity is
needed to maintain the natural balance of the
ecosystem. The species can get rid of the human
impact mainly. Nevertheless, the drawback is that for
some endangered species, Protected areas do nothing
to help snow leopards get rid of climate change
naturally. Thus, any of the causes that were talked
about before are potentially harmful to the snow
leopards. A human can try more ways that can reduce
the impacts of climate change on geographic and
biological impacts. These results offer a guideline for
the importance and urgency of snow leopards’
protection
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