Tree-ring hydrological research in the Himalaya: State of the art and future directions

Abstract

Recent developments in tree-ring research offer great potential for reconstructing past climate changes; determining the frequencies of natural hazards; and assessing the availability of freshwater resources over timescales that extend well into the pre-instrumental period. Here, we review the state of dendrochronological research in the Himalaya and outline future directions for tree-ring-based hydrological reconstructions in a region that has a pressing societal need to understand the causes and consequences of past, present and future changes in the hydrological cycle. We used ‘tree ring’ and ‘Himalaya’ as keywords to identify scholarly articles from the Web of Science that were published between 1994 and 2022. The resulting 173 publications were separated by their spatial coverage into the western, central and eastern Himalaya, as well as their scientific purpose (e.g. reconstructing growth-climate relationships, temperature, precipitation, streamflow, floods, droughts, etc.). Our analysis shows that dendrochronological research in the Himalaya primarily focused on understanding growth-climate relationships using annual tree-ring widths measurements obtained for coniferous species, and their application in climate reconstructions. Reconstructions of hydrological processes such as streamflows, and extremes such as glacial and landslide lake outburst floods, have received less attention. Recent advances in dendrochronology, including blue intensity (BI), quantitative wood anatomy (QWA), and tree-ring stable isotopes (TRSI) should be combined to improve the resolution and accuracy of hydrological reconstructions in all parts of the Himalaya. Such studies may allow us to better understand the effects of climate change and the Himalayan water resources for its lowland surroundings. They may also facilitate decision-making processes for mitigating the impacts of climate change on natural hazards, and for better managing water resources in the region.