Forest policies and programs affecting vulnerability and adaptation to climate change

Due to large scale afforestation programs and forest conservation legislations, India's total forest area seems to have stabilized or even increased. In spite of such efforts, forest fragmentation and degradation continues, with forests being subject to increased pressure due to anthropogenic factors. Such fragmentation and degradation is leading to the forest cover to change from very dense to moderately dense and open forest and 253 km(2) of very dense forest has been converted to moderately dense forest, open forest, scrub and non-forest (during 2005-2007). Similarly, there has been a degradation of 4,120 km(2) of moderately dense forest to open forest, scrub and non-forest resulting in a net loss of 936 km(2) of moderately dense forest. Additionally, 4,335 km(2) of open forest have degraded to scrub and non-forest. Coupled with pressure due to anthropogenic factors, climate change is likely to be an added stress on forests. Forest sector programs and policies are major factors that determine the status of forests and potentially resilience to projected impacts of climate change. An attempt is made to review the forest policies and programs and their implications for the status of forests and for vulnerability of forests to projected climate change. The study concludes that forest conservation and development policies and programs need to be oriented to incorporate climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation.

Implications of climate change on mitigation potential estimates for forest sector in India

Climate change is projected to impact forest ecosystems, including biodiversity and Net Primary Productivity (NPP). National level carbon forest sector mitigation potential estimates are available for India; however impacts of projected climate change are not included in the mitigation potential estimates. Change in NPP (in gC/m(2)/yr) is taken to represent the impacts of climate change. Long term impacts of climate change (2085) on the NPP of Indian forests are available; however no such regional estimates are available for short and medium terms. The present study based on GCM climatology scenarios projects the short, medium and long term impacts of climate change on forest ecosystems especially on NPP using BIOME4 vegetation model. We estimate that under A2 scenario by the year 2030 the NPP changes by (-5) to 40% across different agro-ecological zones (AEZ). By 2050 it increases by 15% to 59% and by 2070 it increases by 34 to 84%. However, under B2 scenario it increases only by 3 to 25%, 3.5 to 34% and (-2.5) to 38% respectively, in the same time periods. The cumulative mitigation potential is estimated to increase by up to 21% (by nearly 1 GtC) under A2 scenario between the years 2008 and 2108, whereas, under B2 the mitigation potential increases only by 14% (646 MtC). However, cumulative mitigation potential estimates obtained from IBIS-a dynamic global vegetation model suggest much smaller gains, where mitigation potential increases by only 6% and 5% during the period 2008 to 2108.

Integrated modelling approaches to analysis of climate change impacts on forests and forest management

This paper reviews integrated economic and ecological models that address impacts and adaptation to climate change in the forest sector. Early economic model studies considered forests as one out of many possible impacts of climate change, while ecological model studies tended to limit the economic impacts to fixed price-assumptions. More recent studies include broader representations of both systems, but there are still few studies which can be regarded fully integrated. Full integration of ecological and economic models is needed to address forest management under climate change appropriately. The conclusion so far is that there are vast uncertainties about how climate change affects forests. This is partly due to the limited knowledge about the global implications of the social and economical adaptation to the effects of climate change on forests.

Reproductive phenology of a tropical dry forest in Mudumalai, Southern India

1 Flowering and fruiting phenologies of a tropical dry forest in Mudumalai, southern India, were studied between April 1988 and August 1990. Two sites, a wetter site I receiving 1100mm and a drier site II receiving 600mm of rainfall annually, are compared. A total of 286 trees from 38 species at site I and 167 trees from 27 species at site II was marked for phenological observations. There were 11 species common to the two sites. Several hypotheses relating to the evolution of reproductive phenology are tested. 2 Frequency of species flowering attained a peak at site I during the dry season but at site II, where soil moisture may be limiting during the dry months, the peak was during the wet season. At both sites a majority of species flushed leaves and flowered simultaneously. Among various guilds, the bird-pollinated guild showed distinct dry season flowering, which may be related to better advertisement of large flowers to pollinators during the leafless dry phase. The wind-pollinated guild flowered mainly during the wet season, when wind speeds are highest and favourable for pollen transport. The insect-pollinated guild showed no seasonality in flowering in site I but a wet season flowering in site II. 3 Fruiting frequency attained a peak in site I during the late wet season extending into the early dry season; a time-lag correlation showed that fruiting followed rainfall with a lag of about two months. Site II showed a similar fruiting pattern but this was not statistically significant. The dispersal guilds (animal, wind, and explosive passively-dispersed) did not show any clear seasonality in fruiting, except for the animal-dispersed guild which showed wet season fruiting in site I. 4 Hurlbert's overlap index was also calculated in order to look at synchrony in flowering and fruiting irrespective of climatic (dry and wet month) seasonality. In general, overlap in flowering and fruiting guilds was high because of seasonal aggregation. Among the exceptions, at site II the wind-pollinated flowering guild did not show significant overlap between species although flowering aggregated in the wet season. This could be due to the need to avoid heterospecific pollen transfer. 5 Rarer species tended to flower earlier in the dry season and this again could be an adaptation to avoid the risk of heterospecific pollen transfer or competition for pollinators. The more abundant species flowered mainly during the wet season. Species which flower earlier have larger flowers and, having invested more energy in flowers, also have shorter flower to fruit durations.

A novel method for mapping assembled epitopes in batches: Identification of three epitopes at the receptor binding region of human chorionic gonadotropin

Identification of conformation-specific epitopes of hCG beta has been done using a simple batch method, Chemically or enzymatically-modified hCG beta has been prepared in a batch and the effect of modifications on the integrity of different epitope regions has been investigated in a quantitative manner using monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) immobilized on plastic tubes from culture supernatants. Based on the extent of damage done to different regions by different modifications, three conformation-specific epitopes of hCG beta have been identified. The method has been shown to have important advantages over the existing methods on many considerations, Using this approach, these epitopes have been shown to be at/near the receptor-binding region.

Antigenic determinants at the carboxy terminus of chicken egg white riboflavin carrier protein (RCP): Epitope mapping and antibody-mediated pregnancy curtailment in rodents

The epitopic core sequences recognized by three monoclonal antibodies raised to chicken riboflavin carrier protein (RCP) were mapped to the C-terminal tail-end of the protein using the pepscan method A 21-residue synthetic peptide corresponding to residues 200-219 of the protein and comprising the regions corresponding to the antibodies was synthesized. Administration of polyclonal antibodies specific to this peptide led to termination of early pregnancy in mice. Also, active immunization of rats with the peptide-purified protein derivative conjugate inhibited establishment of pregnancy. These results demonstrate the functional importance of the C-terminal 200-219 region of chicken RCP. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Long term monitering of vegetation in a tropical deciduous forest in Mudumalai,southern India

As part of an international network of large plots to study tropical vegetation dynamics on a long-term basis, a 50-hectare permanent plot was set up during 1988-89 in the deciduous forests of Mudumalai, southern India. Within this plot 25,929 living woody plants (71 species) above 1 cm DBH (diameter at breast height) were identified, measured, tagged and mapped. Species abundances corresponded to the characteristic log-normal distribution. The four most abundant species (Kydia calycina, Lagerstroemia microcarpa, Terminalia crenulata and Helicteres isora) constituted nearly 56% of total stems, while seven species were represented by only one individual each in the plot. Variance/mean ratios of density showed most species to have clumped distributions. The population declined overall by 14% during the first two years, largely due to elephant and fire-mediated damage to Kydia calycina and Helicteres isora. In this article we discuss the need for large plots to study vegetation dynamics.

Phenology of tree species of tropical moist forest of Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka, India

Phenological observations on tree species in tropical moist forest of Uttara Kannada district (13ℴ55′ to 15ℴ31′ N lat; 74ℴ9′ to 75ℴ10′ E long) during the years 1983–1985 revealed that there exists a strong seasonality for leaf flush, leaf drop and reproduction. Young leaves were produced in the pre-monsoon dry period with a peak in February, followed by the expansion of leaves which was completed in March. Abscission of leaves occurred in the post-monsoon winter period with a peak in December. There were two peaks for flowering (December and March), while fruit ripening had a single peak in May–June, preceding the monsoon rainfall. The duration of maturation of leaves was the shortest, while that of full ripening of fruits was the longest. Mature flowers of evergreen species lasted longer than those of deciduous species; in contrast the phenophase of ripe fruits of deciduous species was longer than that of evergreen species.

Microhabitat selection in an assemblage of crickets (Orthoptera: Ensifera) of a tropical evergreen forest in Southern India

1. Habitat selection is a universal aspect of animal ecology that has important fitness consequences and may drive patterns of spatial organisation in ecological communities. 2. Measurements of habitat selection have mostly been carried out on single species and at the landscape level. Quantitative studies examining microhabitat selection at the community level are scarce, especially in insects. 3. In this study, microhabitat selection in a natural assemblage of cricket species was examined for the first time using resource selection functions (RSF), an approach more commonly applied in studies of macrohabitat selection. 4. The availability and differential use of six microhabitats by 13 species of crickets inhabiting a tropical evergreen forest in southern India was examined. The six available microhabitats included leaf litter-covered ground, tree trunks, dead logs, brambles, understorey and canopy foliage. The area offered by the six microhabitats was estimated using standard methods of forest structure measurement. Of the six microhabitats, the understorey and canopy accounted for approximately 70% of the total available area. 5. The use of different microhabitats by the 13 species was investigated using acoustic sampling of crickets to locate calling individuals. Using RSF, it was found that of 13 cricket species examined, 10 showed 100% selection for a specific microhabitat. Of these, two species showed fairly high selection for brambles and dead logs, which were rare microhabitats, highlighting the importance of preserving all components of forest structure.

Endophytic fungal communities in woody perennials of three tropical forest types of the Western Ghats, southern India

Fungal endophytes of tropical trees are expected to be exceptionally species rich as a consequence of high tree diversity in the tropics and the purported host restriction among the endophytes. Based on this premise, endophytes have been regarded as a focal group for estimating fungal numbers because their possible hyperdiverse nature would reflect significantly global fungal diversity. We present our consolidated ten-year work on 75 dicotyledonous tree hosts belonging to 33 families and growing in three different types of tropical forests of the NBR in the Western Ghats, southern India. We conclude that endophyte diversity in these forests is limited due to loose host affiliations among endophytes. Some endophytes have a wide host range and colonize taxonomically disparate hosts suggesting adaptations in them to counter a variety of defense chemicals in their hosts. Furthermore, such polyphagous endophytes dominate the endophyte assemblages of different tree hosts. Individual leaves may be densely colonized but only by a few endophyte species. It appears that the environment (the type of forest in this case) has a larger role in determining the endophyte assemblage of a plant host than the taxonomy of the host plant. Thus, different tropical plant communities have to be studied for their endophyte diversity to test the generalization that endophytes are hyperdiverse in the tropics, estimate their true species richness, and use them as a predictor group for more accurate assessment of global fungal diversity.

RS and GIS in mapping of geomorphic records and understanding the local controls of glacial retreat from the Baspa Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India

We report here the role of remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS) in the identification of geomorphic records and understanding of the local controls on the retreat of glaciers of the Baspa Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India. The geomorphic records mapped are accumulation zone, exposed ablation zone, moraine-covered ablation zone, snout, deglaciated valley, lateral moraine, medial moraine, terminal moraine and hanging glacier. Details of these features and stages of deglaciation have been extracted from RS data and mapped in a GIS environment. Glacial geomorphic data have been generated for 22 glaciers of the Baspa Valley. The retreat of glaciers has been estimated using the glacial maxima observed on satellite images. On the basis of percentage of retreat and the critical analysis of glacial geomorphic data for 22 glaciers of the Baspa Valley, they are classified into seven categories of very low to very very high retreat. From the analysis of the above 22 glaciers, it has been found that other than global warming, the retreat of glaciers of the Baspa Valley is inversely proportional to the size of the accumulation zone and the ratio of the moraine covered ablation/exposed ablation zone.

Mapping adaptive resonance theory onto ring and mesh architectures

In recent years, parallel computers have been attracting attention for simulating artificial neural networks (ANN). This is due to the inherent parallelism in ANN. This work is aimed at studying ways of parallelizing adaptive resonance theory (ART), a popular neural network algorithm. The core computations of ART are separated and different strategies of parallelizing ART are discussed. We present mapping strategies for ART 2-A neural network onto ring and mesh architectures. The required parallel architecture is simulated using a parallel architectural simulator, PROTEUS and parallel programs are written using a superset of C for the algorithms presented. A simulation-based scalability study of the algorithm-architecture match is carried out. The various overheads are identified in order to suggest ways of improving the performance. Our main objective is to find out the performance of the ART2-A network on different parallel architectures. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

A comparative analysis of regeneration in natural forests and joint forest management plantations in Uttara Kannada district, Western Ghats

Five villages undertaking joint forest management (JFM) were chosen in Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka for assessing regeneration in plantations and nearby natural forests of the village. Species number, stem density, diversity index, similarity in species composition in less disturbed and disturbed forests and plantations in the village were compared. Stem density was low in all the disturbed forests; however, the species number was low in disturbed forests of three villages and high in two villages. Plantations showed lower diversity values compared to the adjacent natural forests. Regeneration in all less disturbed forests was better compared to the disturbed counterparts. Villages were ranked based on number of landless families, per, capita forest available and number of cut stems. Assessment of village forests using ranks indicates that parameters such as per capita availability, cut stems in the forests may determine the success of JFM.