Climate Change Will Affect the Asian Water Towers

Abstract

Towering Figures The Tibetan plateau and adjacent mountain ranges are the source areas of the five major rivers of Asia. Climate change promises to affect both precipitation patterns and glacial melting in the region, which could have marked impacts on river flows and on associated agriculture. Immerzeel et al. (p. 1382 ) analyzed the relative importance of glacial meltwater and rainfall in the region in order to determine how the rivers depend on different sources of water, and how the river basins may be affected by climate change. Climate change is likely to affect water availability in the river basins in substantial but diverse ways, which may threaten the food security of tens of millions of people.