Vegetation structure and composition of tropical evergreen and deciduous forests in Uttara Kannada District, Western Ghats under different disturbance regimes

In the present paper, we present the structure and composition of tropical evergreen and deciduous forests in the Western Ghats monitored under a long-term programme involving Indian Institute of Science, Earthwatch and volunteer investigators from HSBC. Currently, there is limited evidence on the status and dynamics of tropical forests in the context of human disturbance and climate change. Observations made in this study show that the `more disturbed' evergreen and one of the deciduous plots have low species diversity compared to the less-disturbed forests. There are also variations in the size class structure in the more and `less disturbed' forests of all the locations. The variation is particularly noticeable in the DBH size class 10 - 15 cm category. When biomass stock estimates are considered, there was no significant difference between evergreen and deciduous forests. The difference in biomass stocks between `less disturbed' and `more disturbed' forests within a forest type is also low. Thus, the biomass and carbon stock has not been impacted despite the dependence of communities on the forests. Periodic and long-term monitoring of the status and dynamics of the forests is necessary in the context of potential increased human pressure and climate change. There is, therefore, a need to inform the communities of the impact of extraction and its effect on regeneration so as to motivate them to adopt what may be termed as ``adaptive resource management'', so as to sustain the flow of forest products.

Inter-comparison and performance evaluation of chemistry transport models over Indian region

Aerosol loading over the South Asian region has the potential to affect the monsoon rainfall, Himalayan glaciers and regional air-quality, with implications for the billions in this region. While field campaigns and network observations provide primary data, they tend to be location/season specific. Numerical models are useful to regionalize such location-specific data. Studies have shown that numerical models underestimate the aerosol scenario over the Indian region, mainly due to shortcomings related to meteorology and the emission inventories used. In this context, we have evaluated the performance of two such chemistry-transport models: WRF-Chem and SPRINTARS over an India-centric domain. The models differ in many aspects including physical domain, horizontal resolution, meteorological forcing and so on etc. Despite these differences, both the models simulated similar spatial patterns of Black Carbon (BC) mass concentration, (with a spatial correlation of 0.9 with each other), and a reasonable estimates of its concentration, though both of them under-estimated vis-a-vis the observations. While the emissions are lower (higher) in SPRINTARS (WRF-Chem), overestimation of wind parameters in WRF-Chem caused the concentration to be similar in both models. Additionally, we quantified the under-estimations of anthropogenic BC emissions in the inventories used these two models and three other widely used emission inventories. Our analysis indicates that all these emission inventories underestimate the emissions of BC over India by a factor that ranges from 1.5 to 2.9. We have also studied the model simulations of aerosol optical depth over the Indian region. The models differ significantly in simulations of AOD, with WRF-Chem having a better agreement with satellite observations of AOD as far as the spatial pattern is concerned. It is important to note that in addition to BC, dust can also contribute significantly to AOD. The models differ in simulations of the spatial pattern of mineral dust over the Indian region. We find that both meteorological forcing and emission formulation contribute to these differences. Since AOD is column integrated parameter, description of vertical profiles in both models, especially since elevated aerosol layers are often observed over Indian region, could be also a contributing factor. Additionally, differences in the prescription of the optical properties of BC between the models appear to affect the AOD simulations. We also compared simulation of sea-salt concentration in the two models and found that WRF-Chem underestimated its concentration vis-a-vis SPRINTARS. The differences in near-surface oceanic wind speeds appear to be the main source of this difference. In-spite of these differences, we note that there are similarities in their simulation of spatial patterns of various aerosol species (with each other and with observations) and hence models could be valuable tools for aerosol-related studies over the Indian region. Better estimation of emission inventories could improve aerosol-related simulations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A new genus and species of arboreal toad with phytotelmonous larvae, from the Andaman Islands, India (Lissamphibia, Anura, Bufonidae)

A new bufonid amphibian, belonging to a new monotypic genus, is described from the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, Republic of India, based on unique external morphological and skeletal characters which are compared with those of known Oriental and other relevant bufonid genera. Blythophryne gen. n. is distinguished from other bufonid genera by its small adult size (mean SVL 24.02 mm), the presence of six presacral vertebrae, an absence of coccygeal expansions, presence of an elongated pair of parotoid glands, expanded discs at digit tips and phytotelmonous tadpoles that lack oral denticles. The taxonomic and phylogenetic position of the new taxon (that we named as Blythophryne beryet gen. et sp. n.) was ascertained by comparing its 12S and 16S partial genes with those of Oriental and other relevant bufonid lineages. Resulting molecular phylogeny supports the erection of a novel monotypic genus for this lineage from the Andaman Islands of India.

Characterization of silver-kaolinite (AgK): an adsorbent for long-lived I-129 species

Bentonite is a preferred buffer and backfill material for deep geological disposal of high-level nuclear waste (HLW). Bentonite does not retain anions by virtue of its negatively charged basal surface. Imparting anion retention ability to bentonite is important to enable the expansive clay to retain long-lived I-129 (iodine-129; half-life = 16 million years) species that may escape from the HLW geological repository. Silver-kaolinite (AgK) material is prepared as an additive to improve the iodide retention capacity of bentonite. The AgK is prepared by heating kaolinite-silver nitrate mix at 400 degrees C to study the kaolinite influence on the transition metal ion when reacting at its dehydroxylation temperature. Thermo gravimetric-Evolved Gas Detection analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis, X-ray photo electron spectroscopy and electron probe micro analysis indicated that silver occurs as AgO/Ag2O surface coating on thermally reacting kaolinite with silver nitrate at 400 degrees C.

Population Recovery of Nicobar Long-Tailed Macaque Macaca fascicularis umbrosus following a Tsunami in the Nicobar Islands, India

Natural disasters pose a threat to isolated populations of species with restricted distributions, especially those inhabiting islands. The Nicobar long tailed macaque. Macaca fascicularis umbrosus, is one such species found in the three southernmost islands (viz. Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar and Katchal) of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, India. These islands were hit by a massive tsunami (Indian Ocean tsunami, 26 December 2004) after a 9.2 magnitude earthquake. Earlier studies Umapathy et al. 2003; Sivakumar, 2004] reported a sharp decline in the population of M. f. umbrosus after thetsunami. We studied the distribution and population status of M. f. umbrosus on thethree Nicobar Islands and compared our results with those of the previous studies. We carried out trail surveys on existing paths and trails on three islands to get encounter rate as measure of abundance. We also checked the degree of inundation due to tsunami by using Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) on landsat imageries of the study area before and after tsunami. Theencounter rate of groups per kilometre of M. f. umbrosus in Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar and Katchal was 0.30, 0.35 and 0.48 respectively with the mean group size of 39 in Great Nicobar and 43 in Katchal following the tsunami. This was higher than that reported in the two earlier studies conducted before and after the tsunami. Post tsunami, there was a significant change in the proportion of adult males, adult females and immatures, but mean group size did not differ as compared to pre tsunami. The results show that population has recovered from a drastic decline caused by tsunami, but it cannot be ascertained whether it has reached stability because of the altered group structure. This study demonstrates the effect of natural disasters on island occurring species.

Microhyla laterite sp nov., A New Species of Microhyla Tschudi, 1838 (Amphibia: Anura: Microhylidae) from a Laterite Rock Formation in South West India

In recent times, several new species of amphibians have been described from India. Many of these discoveries are from biodiversity hotspots or from within protected areas. We undertook amphibian surveys in human dominated landscapes outside of protected areas in south western region of India between years 2013-2015. We encountered a new species of Microhyla which is described here as Microhyla laterite sp. nov. It was delimited using molecular, morphometric and bioacoustics comparisons. Microhyla laterite sp. nov. appears to be restricted to areas of the West coast of India dominated by laterite rock formations. The laterite rock formations date as far back as the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary and are considered to be wastelands in-spite of their intriguing geological history. We identify knowledge gaps in our understanding of the genus Microhyla from the Indian subcontinent and suggest ways to bridge them.

Electron transfer amongst flavo- and hemo-proteins: diffusible species effect the relay processes, not protein-protein binding

Hitherto, electron transfer (ET) between redox proteins has been deemed to occur via donor-acceptor binding, and diffusible reactive species are considered as deleterious side-products in such systems. Herein, ET from cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR, an animal membrane flavoprotein) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP, a plant hemoprotein) to cytochrome c (Cyt c, a soluble animal hemoprotein) was probed under diverse conditions, using standard assays. ET in the CPR-Cyt c system was critically inhibited by cyanide and sub-equivalent levels of polar one-electron cyclers like copper ions, vitamin C/Trolox and superoxide dismutase. In the presence of lipids, inhibition was also afforded by amphipathic molecules vitamin E, palmitoyl-vitamin C and the membrane hemoprotein, cytochrome b(5). Such nonspecific inhibition (by diverse agents in both aqueous and lipid phases) indicated that electron transfer/relay was effected by small diffusible agents, whose lifetimes are shortened by the diverse radical scavengers. When CPR was retained in a dialysis membrane and Cyt c presented outside in free solution, ET was still observed. Further, HRP (taken at nM levels) catalyzed oxidation of a phenolic substrate was significantly inhibited upon the incorporation of sub-nM levels of Cyt c. The findings imply that CPR-Cyt c or HRP-Cyt c binding is not crucial for ET. Further, fundamental quantitative arguments (based on diffusion/collision) challenge the erstwhile protein-protein binding-assisted ET hypothesis. It is proven beyond reasonable doubt that mobile and diffusible electron carriers (ions and radicals) serve as ``redox-relay agents'' in the biological ET models/setup studied.