Climate change is projected to have important impacts on snow and vegetation distribution in global mountains. Despite this, the coupling of ecological shifts and hydrological processes within alpine zones has not attracted significant scientific attention. As the largest and one of the most climatically sensitive mountain systems, we argue that Himalayan alpine ecohydrological processes require urgent scientific attention because up to 1.6 billion people rely on water supplies from the mountains. We review studies from global mountain systems to highlight the importance of considering ecohydrological impacts within Himalayan alpine zones (4100–6000 m.a.s.l), explaining mechanisms for interactions between snow and dwarf plants. Our findings highlight the paucity of monitoring stations within Himalayan alpine systems. We suggest that it is likely that alpine ecological shifts will impact hydrological processes, but we found that specific mechanisms and functional relationships are missing for Himalayan systems, so the strength and direction of ecohydrological relationships is currently unknown. We advocate for more purposeful and widespread monitoring efforts below glaciers and above the treeline, calling for new experiments to query the role of small plants within the Himalayan alpine hydrological system. We outline the need for community engagement with alpine ecohydrological experiments, and we explain how new snow and vegetation products derived from remote sensing observations have the potential to improve scientific understanding of the interacting effects of warming and ecohydrological factors in this sensitive region.

预计气候变化将对全球山区的积雪和植被分布产生重要影响。尽管如此，高寒带内生态变化和水文过程的耦合并未引起科学界的广泛关注。作为最大和对气候最敏感的山区系统之一，我们认为喜马拉雅高山生态水文过程需要紧急的科学关注，因为多达 16 亿人依赖山区的供水。我们回顾了全球山区系统的研究，以强调考虑喜马拉雅高山地区（4100-6000 masl）内生态水文影响的重要性，解释了雪和矮化植物之间相互作用的机制。我们的研究结果强调了喜马拉雅高山系统中监测站的缺乏。我们认为高山生态变化很可能会影响水文过程，但我们发现喜马拉雅系统缺少特定的机制和功能关系，因此生态水文关系的强度和方向目前尚不清楚。我们提倡在冰川以下和林线以上进行更有目的和更广泛的监测工作，呼吁进行新的实验来质疑小型植物在喜马拉雅高山水文系统中的作用。我们概述了社区参与高山生态水文实验的必要性，并解释了从遥感观测中获得的新雪和植被产品如何有可能提高对该敏感地区变暖和生态水文因素相互作用影响的科学理解。