Roof of the world: Home and border in the genomic era

Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau, known as ‘land of snow’ ‘roof world’, is home to tens millions indigenous people who live with a staggering amount biological diversity. In past decade scientists have applied genomic tools methods substantially advance understanding phylogeography genetic mechanisms behind high-elevation adaptation local biota. However, contributions from researchers native institutions are underrepresented in this scientific endeavour. We point higher degree contribution within discipline conservation biology how recognizing prominence traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) could deliver keen molecular insights. Since Himalaya-Tibet interface spans five countries, comprehensive biogeographical phylogeographical taxon sampling region requires multi-national collaborations across lands well community participation at both national international levels. For next generation ecologists, researching cataloguing evolutionary history information Himalayan landscape race against melting glacier. At roof world, their judgement stewardship will environmental impacts that percolate far beyond lands. ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡའི་རི་རྒྱུད་དང་མཚོ་བོད་མཐོ་སྒང་ལ “གངས་ཀྱི་ལྗོངས” དང “འཛམ་གླིང་ཡང་རྩེ” ཞེས་འབོད་ཅིང་། གནས་དེ་གར། གདོད་མའི་སྡོད་མང་ཁྲི་སྟོང་དང་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་ལ་སྣ་མང་རང་བཞིན་གྱི་སྐྱེ་དངོས་མང་བོ་ཕན་ཚུན་གཅིག་ལ་གཅིག་བརྟེན་གྱིས་འཚོ་ཞིང་གནས། འདས་ཟིན་པའི་ལོ་ངོ་བཅུའི་རིང་། ཚན་རིག་པས་རྒྱུད་རྒྱུ་ཚོགས་པའི་ཞིབ་འཇུག་བྱ་ཐབས་སྤྱད་དེ་ས་གནས་དེ་གའི་སྲོག་ཆགས་དང་རྩི་ཤིང་གི་རིམ་འགྱུར་གནས་ཡུལ། རིགས་རུས་ཀྱི་ལོ་རྒྱུས། གྲང་ངར་ལ་འཚམ་པའི་ཁྱད་གཤིས་བཅས་ལ་བརྟག་དཔྱད་དབྱེ་ཞིབ་བྱས་ཡོད་མོད། རང་ས་རང་ཡུལ་གྱི་ཚན་རིག་པ་དང་ཚན་རིག་ཞིབ་འཇུག་ཚན་ཁག་གིས་ཞིབ་འཇུག་དེ་དག་གི་ཁྲོད་བྱས་རྗེས་བཞག་པ་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཉུང་། གསོ་སྐྱོང་སྐྱེ་དངོས་རིག་པའི་ཁྱབ་ཁོངས་ཁྲོད་བསྡུར་ཚད་ཅུང་མཐོ་བའི་ས་གནས་རང་གི་ཚན་རིག་པའི་བྱས་རྗེས་ལ་གཤིབ་བསྡུར་བྱེད་སྐབས། ང་ཚོས་ས་གནས་དེ་གའི་སྐྱེ་ཁམས་ཤེས་བྱ་བསྡུ་ལེན་བྱས་ན་འདས་རྡུལ་སྐྱེ་དངོས་རིག་པར་ཚན་རིག་ཞིབ་འཇུག་གི་འཆར་སྣང་མཁོ་འདོན་བྱེད་ཐུབ་ཅེས་བསྟན། ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡ་བོད་ལྗོངས་ས་ཁུལ་ནི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ལྔའི་མཐའ་མཚམས་སྦྲེལ་བའི་གནས་ཤིག་ཡིན་མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་རྒྱལ་མཚམས་ནི་སྐྱེ་དངོས་ཁྱབ་གདལ་གྱི་འགོག་རྐྱེན་མ་ཡིན་པའི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས། ཁྱོན་ཡོངས་ཀྱི་སྐྱེ་དངོས་ས་ཁམས་དང་སྐྱེ་དངོས་རིམ་འགྱུར་བྱུང་བའི་དཔེ་དབྱིབས་སྔོག་འདོན་གྱི་ལས་དོན་དེ་ཉིད་ངེས་པར་དུ་གདོད་མའི་སྡོད་མང་གི་ས་ཆའི་ཐོག་ཏུ་སྔར་ཡོད་སྡོད་དམངས་ཞུགས་ནས། རྒྱལ་ཁབ་རིམ་པ་དང་ཡང་ན་རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་བར་མཉམ་ལས་བྱ་དགོས། གཞོན་སྐྱེས་སྔར་ཡོད་སྡོད་དམངས་ཀྱི་སྐྱེ་ཁམས་རིག་པ་བའི་ངོས་ནས་བཤད་ན། ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡའི་རི་རྒྱུད་དང་མཚོ་བོད་མཐོ་སྒང་གི་འཕེལ་འགྱུར་ལོ་རྒྱུས་དང་རྒྱུད་འཛིན་ཆ་འཕྲིན་ལ་ཞིབ་འཇུག་དང་ཟིན་ཐོ་འགོད་པ་ནི་ཞུ་བཞིན་པའི་འཁྱགས་རོམ་དང་རྐང་རྒྱུགས་འགྲན་པ་དང་མཚུངས། ཁོ་ཚོས་འཛམ་གླིང་གི་ཡང་རྩེ་རུ་ཚན་རིག་གི་ལྟ་བ་དང་མཛུབ་སྟོན་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་སྐྱེ་ཁམས་ཀྱི་ཤུགས་རྐྱེན་ནི་ཁོ་ཚོ་གནས་སའི་ཁྱབ་ཁོངས་ལས་ཡོངས་སུ་བརྒལ་ཡོད། Himalaya, (pronounced hee-MA-laya, Sanskrit word singular plural), stretches 2400 km heart Asia, between Indus Brahmaputra rivers. North valleys snow peaks lies vast expanse larger than combined areas France, Germany, UK Spain. The highlands more 6 million Tibetans, along least 10 Monpa, Lhoba, Nakhi, Qiang Yi ethnicities inhabiting mountainous regions eastern edge plateau (known Hengduan Mountains). South Tibet, 50 people, representing diverse ethnic groups such Chang-pas, Thakur, Gujjar, Bakkerwal, Gaddi, Bhutiya, Pahari, Khasas, Chettri, Lepcha, Tamang, Tharu, Sherpa, Ngalop, Nyishi, Apatani, Adi Lama. These biodiversity: 10,000 species vascular plants, 300 mammals 1000 birds Himalaya; on Mountains 12,000 230 610 birds. immense biodiversity Plateau supported by water flowing third largest deposit ice earth (apart two poles). This mass also source Asia's eight rivers, which sustain livelihood 1.5 billion downstream. Under drastically changing climate, communities suffer most consequences warming (Lee et al., 2021; Pandit, 2017), including loss lifestyles culturally significant, adapted flora fauna (Figure 1a), many biologists only beginning systematically document study. Biology Tibet underwent stages exploitation inventory arrive Colonial surveyors collected samples for imperial museums 19th century (e.g. Hooker, 1891; Kingdon-Ward, 1913). After nations achieved independence 20th century, taxonomists started documenting own countries Botanical Survey India, 2022; Chinese Academy Sciences, 2022). period coincided establishment majority existing parks wildlife sanctuaries. 21st incorporating cellular investigations 1b). decade, whole genomes barley (Hordeum vulgare L. var. nudum, ནས) yak (Bos grunniens, གཡག) been assembled (Qiu 2012; Zeng 2015), high elevation-adapted pigs locally cloned (Global Times, 2021). year alone, delineated population hotspring snakes (Thermophis baileyi) around holy city Lhasa (Yan 2022), explored metabolomics differential gene expression single plant-dimorphic flowers alpine Sinoswertia gentians (Zhu 2022) identified cortex controlling pattern polymorphism Kallima oakleaf butterflies (Wang, Teng, narrative undercuts experience especially present-day studies. example, during Molecular Ecology Resources published 37 studies sampled but one included co-author; total 13 drew none authors came Himalaya-based institution (Table S1). Surveying related provided glimmer hope: same period, Conservation Biological 43 papers four credited authorship; 28 12 involved institutions, six being first/ corresponding positions S2 S3). Indigenous communities' positive recognized worldwide. Nyanpo Yutse (གཉན་པོ་གཡུ་རྩེ) park Golog Autonomous Prefecture China, decade-long partnerships Buddhists strengthened capacity (Gao & Tashi, 2021); Chamoli district northern Uttarakhand Indian tribal belief planting “sacred groves” has NGOs state forest departments an important practice (Kandari 2014). ecology, au fond, addresses interactions processes, like biology, field can benefit because they understand pulse texture land ecologically intimate dimensions. perception caterpillar fungus (དབྱར་རྩྭ་དགུན་འབུ), symbiosis Thitarodes moth larva Ophiocordyceps endemic highland, examples provide complementary processes (see Box 1). To broader extent, allopatric speciation isolation, major themes contemporary study Himalayan-distributed biota, deeply embedded saying ‘Each valley its dialect; each lama his religion’ (ལུང་པ་རེ་རེར་སྐད་ལུགས་རེ་རེ། བླ་མ་རེ་རེར་ཆོས་ལུགས་རེ་རེ།). Tibetans these profound insights familiarity inhabit. When integrated into global collaborations, TEK holistic perspectives necessary addressing challenges facing. Caterpillar (དབྱར་རྩྭ་དགུན་འབུ Tibetan, 冬虫夏草 Chinese, meaning ‘summer grass winter worm’ languages) highland. parasitize soil-boring larvae summer release ascospores head capsules spring. excavated, parasitized harden mummified, caterpillar-shaped bundles mycelium stromata. symbiont was first described, natural habitat, Nyamnyi Dorje (མཉམ་ཉིད་རྡོ་རྗེ) 15th century. It since centuries sold east southeast Asia ethnomedicinal purposes (Winkler, 2008). As commodities dried-out symbionts seen homogenous products, collectors know produces different breed fungi, value provenance authenticity. Their insight affirmed work showed co-diversifying multispecies complex (Zhang 2014), distinguishable structure even glacial (Wang Pierce, 2023). findings add nuance complexity planning particularly predicting range shift face climate change, opportunity track authenticate market produce species-level markers. sacred countries: Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan China. They include world's first, second fifth populous countries; legislations. Today China India share 2000 borders where historically, closely traded migrated (Goldstein, 1981; van Schaik, 2013). populations Nepal markers immediate geographical neighbours south (Tamang 2018). general, not effective dispersal barrier: 54% over 550 butterfly (83% all genera) 70% 1100 bird (87% found Region (TAR, China) shared (Avibase, 2023; Birds Consortium, Kunte 2023); 61% (94% 7850 angiosperms recorded present (Rana Flora despite presence multiple among 40% any sequencing data available Comprehensive Such indeed tasks proportions—but opportunities participation. Take examples: huge potential strengthen (Bawa 2010, 2020; Gupta Dhawan, 2003) signed concrete memoranda cooperation science technology (Embassy sciences (Goodale some efforts come grass-root level (Feng Garg, Even economically previous section) now be regional collaborative effort involves Da, Within borders, actively invest studying world: Lhasa, administrative capital TAR, boasts administered museum seed bank, research universities national-level station; prioritized ecosystem suite developmental programs (Kaur established world-class G. B. Pant National Institute). A affirmative plan recruit knowledge-holders infrastructures tailored specificities nation, facilitate transfer expertise domain know-hows particular, we note differences details legislations, ratified Nagoya Protocol (https://www.cbd.int/abs/doc/protocol/nagoya-protocol-en.pdf), calls fair equitable sharing benefits arising resources highlights importance accessing associated (Article 12). Effective active process (including collection, storage publication data) safeguard legally-binding agreements deteriorating bureaucratic lip service. already preparing people's register through formation management committees village throughout country order bioresources protect intellectual property rights people. Conserving focal 2017) Researching ethnobotanical use (Schwenzer 2021) Promoting common name language (Li, 2019) Documenting historical current (Czaja, Engaging civil society organizations equal partners joint management, Singh 2011) Recruiting knowledge-holder Holifield Williams, Establishing digital commons participatory assessment database Ball-Damerow Enrolling students graduate action Ding Mentoring youth mentoring program carr Conducting fieldwork training (Ramírez-Castañeda Incorporating curriculum (middle-school: Kim Dionne, 2014; undergraduate: Greenall Bailey, Moreover, indigenous-focused exchange jumpstart collaborations. Interestingly, scholarly exchanges integral part centuries-old monastic (Dreyfus, 2003), monks travel monasteries defend thesis before achieving title Geshe (དགེ་བཤེས). Innovating international, context would critical commitment promote 1c,d). Well-provisioned student programs, similar Erasmus Mundus Master Programme Evolutionary (MEME: https://www.evobio.eu/) Europe, or strong focus Summer Internship Peoples Genomics America, Australia New Zealand (SING: https://singconsortium.org/) career pathways ecologists grounded while proficient state-of-the-art analytic techniques. WD Second Scientific Expedition Research (STEP) (Grant No. 2019QZKK05010603) Sciences grant Shigatse Bureau Science investigate pollinator diversity Mt. Everest reserves. KK's times Ramanujan Fellowship Dept. Technology, Govt. (“NAS”, USA) USAID's Partnerships Enhanced Engagement (PEER) Grant (PGA-2000003433), NCBS grants. ZW Shiu-Ying Hu Student Exchange Award Arnold Arboretum Harvard University. indebted Himalayan-Tibetan her nurtured inspired us. declare no conflict interests. Our team includes scientists; committed increasing engagement Qinghai-Tibetan settings. Data analysed our literature review supplementary material. S1. Please note: publisher responsible content functionality supporting supplied authors. Any queries (other missing content) should directed author article.