山地における農業と気候に関わる通年観測体制の構築 : ラダークの村落における簡易気象観測機器と定点カメラの設置

Abstract

山地農業は、標高差にともなう自然環境の違いに応じて展開されてきた。山地農業において気温は非常に重要な要素であり、その重要性は近年の商品作物導入の場面でも変わりはない。それゆえに、近年取り沙汰されている気候変動はこれらの農業システムに影響を及ぼすことが予想されるが、山地では気象の観測体制が十分には整えられておらず、農業実践に関しても通年での状況を把握した報告に乏しい。これらの問題意識に基づいて我々は、インド北部ラダークの村落に簡易の気象観測機器と定点カメラを設置した。本報告ではその概要を示すとともに、これらの機器から得られたデータによってどのような地域理解をおこなえるのか、そのいくつかの事例を報告する。

Mountain environment varies with altitude. The variation of temperature with altitude results in diverse flora and fauna in different altitudinal zones. Agriculture has long been practiced in mountainous regions and also varies with altitudinal zones. Although mountain agriculture has recently been changing owing to economic globalization, small-scale climate is still important when considering the introduction of commercial crops. In addition, global warming has significant impacts on these regions, and mountain agriculture based on microscale climate would be prone to suffer from such climate change. However, because meteorological observations are usually conducted at limited stations, characteristics of small-scale climate—in most parts of the mountainous regions—are still unclear. Moreover, field research in mountain regions is generally conducted during limited seasons owing to harsh natural condition and difficult accessibility, thus agrarian practice is seldom observed year-round. Hence, further research is necessary to understand the relation between agrarian practice and small-scale climate. To address these issues, we have installed simple equipments to measure peripheral temperature and relative humidity in mountain villages of Ladakh, located in north India. Automatic cameras to observe agrarian practice have also been installed in the same village. This study aims to report the outline of the collected data and make brief discussion with these data.