ID: 59178
Title: The winter habitat selection of red panda (Ailurus fulgens) in the Meigu Dafengding National Nature Reserve, China.
Author: Xueyi Zhou, Hongwei Jiao, Yansu Dou, Achyut Aryal, Jie Hu, Jinchu Hu, Xiuxiang Meng.
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 10), pp. 1425-1429, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: Habitat selection, red panda, resource uses, winter season.
Abstract: The red panda (Ailurus fulgens) is a scarcely known threatened mammal in Asia. Habitat fragmentation, poaching and human disturbance are the main threats currently faced by red pandas throughout their distribution range. We studied the habitat selection of red panda in the Meigu Dafengding National Nature Reserve (MDNNR) in the Hengduan Mountains of China between December 2006 and February 2007. Our survey confirmed red panda presence in most of the MDNNR and also that they select a specific habitat type based on micro-habitats. The red pandas preferred mixed broadleaved and coniferous forest habitat with bamboo understorey, as bamboo was their main source of food. They preferred habitats with more than 45 slope and avoided habitats with 15-30 slope. They also preferred the southern aspect and avoided the northeast-facing aspect. We found that most red panda sign was close to a water resource. There are more than 10 villages in the Reserve and the villagers depend directly or indirectly on the Reserve for their livelihood. Livestock grazing, human disturbances, poaching, illegal wood and other forest product collection for local use or commercial purposes are all exerting pressure on the area. Our study on the habitat selection of the red panda for the winter season in the MDNNR will be helpful for further understanding of the ecology and also help to the government to devise a conservation strategy and habitat conservation planning for the Reserve.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59177
Title: Clay carbon pools and their relationship with short-range order minerals: avenues to mitigate climate change?
Author: Dibyendu Chatterjee, S C Datta, K M Manjaiah.
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 10), pp. 1404-1410, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: Amorphous ferri-alumino silicate, labile carbon, short-range order minerals, total organic carbon.
Abstract: The relationship of short-range order (SRO) minerals, their role in carbon sequestration capacity and its relation with clay carbon was studied in three soils with contrasting characteristics. The study was carried out in two phases, viz. sorghum-sudangrass depletion experiment and test crop harvest, the clays were separated and fractionated into fine and coarse clay humus complexes and SRO minerals, total organic carbon (TOC) and labile carbon (LC) contents were estimated in them. In fine clay humus complex, mean TOC was significantly higher in Vertisol (3.01%), depleted fertility (2.96 %) and rhizosphere (2.87%) samples. LC was significantly higher in depleted fertility status (1.74%), Vertisol (1.72%) and non-rhizosphere (1.82%) samples. In coarse clay humus complex, mean TOC was significantly higher in depleted fertility status (2.33%), Vertisol (2.71%) and rhizosphere (2.30%) samples, whereas for LC only significant difference was observed in soil. TOC showed significant and positive correlation with amorphous ferri-alumino silicate (AFAS) content and allophane content in fine and coarse clay humus complexes and allophane content in coarse clay humus complex. Fine clay humus in any soil is most important in terms of total amount of sequestered carbon. In coarse clay humus fraction, the role of Al and Fe compound is more prominent. Alfisol is the most potential soil for sequestering carbon; rhizosphere sequestered more carbon than non-rhizosphere.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59176
Title: Monitoring of great Himalayan glaciers in Patsio region, India using remote sensing and climatic observation.
Author: H S Negi, G Saravana, R. Rout, Snehamani.
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 10), pp. 1383-1392, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: Climate change, glaciers, remote sensing, snow line.
Abstract: Three glaciers, namely Panchi-Nala, Zing-Zing-Bar and Baralacha-La in the Patsio region, Great Himalaya, India were monitored between 1971 and 2011 using satellite data. These glaciers were selected based on their terminus altitude, slope variations and debris cover. The Landsat, Corona, LISS-IV and Cartosat-1 satellite data were analysed to monitor variations in the area of glacier, terminus and annual snow line. Glacier outlines from the satellite imageries were generated using hybrid technique consisting of visual interpretation, band ratio, NDSII and thermal band (TM and ETM+) data. Glacier outline was also verified by GPS survey on Zing-Zang-Bar in 2011. The total loss in the area of a glacier terminus of 22.5 ma-1 was okbserved for the Zing-Zang-Bar glacier, wheras for Panchi-Nala and Baralacha-La glacier, the average retreat was observed to be 9.2 and 10 ma-1 respectively. An upward shift in Equilibrium Line Altitude was observed for all the glaciers between 1971 and 2011. The climate data collected at SASE meteorological station, Patsio (3800 m) between 1983 and 2011 suggests an increasing trend in the mean annual temperture and a decreasing winter precipitation. These observations support the effect of climate variability on spatial variation of glaciers in the Patsio region. Non-climatic factors such as size of the glacier, slope variation and debris cover were found to influence variable responses of different glaciers in the same climatic zone.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59175
Title: Soil moisture dynamics modelling enabled by hydraulic redistribution in multi-layer root zone.
Author: Rohitashw Kumar, Mahesh Kumar Jat, Vijay Shankar.
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 10), pp. 1373-1382, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: Crop root zone, evapotranspiration, irrigation, mathematical modelling, soil-water.
Abstract: Moisture uptake by plant roots from unsaturated soil is a key process for plant growth and transport of water in the soil-plant system. A soil water uptake model was developed and validated for non-uniform crop root zone in a sub-temperate, sub-humid agroclimate of Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India. Root water uptake function was incorporated in the governing soil moisture flow equation. A nonlinear root water uptake model developed earlier was selected as the base model to evaluate moisture extraction pattern in multilayer crop root zone and to evaluate its efficacy for the agro-climate of Solan. To validate the enhanced prediction efficiency of the model for a multilayer crop root zone, field experiments were conducted at the sub-temperate, sub-humid agro-climate of Solan under controlled condition on pea (Pisum sativum). Model predicted soil-moisture parameters, i.e. moisture depletion, moisture status at various depths and soil moisture profile in the root are satisfactory and in good agreement with experimental results. The model results indicate that the moisture uptake is more near the base of the root system. The resutls validated the utility of the root water uptake model across different agro-climates for non-uniform soils having different soil-moisture characteristics in different layers of the root zone. The model has demonstrated its applicability for accurate estimation of crop water requirement and helps in better irrigation scheduling and water management.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59174
Title: Towards achieving the Twelfth Plan target of green cover.
Author: Indrani Chandrasharan, Barka Bhatnagar, Urvana Menon, Bhagyam Chandrasekharan.
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 10), pp. 1358-1365, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: Afforestation, core indicators, green cover, revenue generation, targets, trading.
Abstract: This article attempts to detail options for apportioning and achieving the target set for the 12th plan of increasing green cover by the states and suggests a new scheme along with five options to assist the Centre and the State Governments in achieving their forest cover targets.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59173
Title: Did a cloud burst occur in Kedarnath during 16 and 17 June 2013?
Author: Anoop Mishra, J Srinivasan.
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 10), pp. 1351-1352, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: cloud burst, Kedarnath, June 2013.
Abstract: In recent decades many parts of India have experienced frequent flood events. A multi-day extreme rainfall event occurred during 15-17 June 2013 in Uttarakhand that caused devastating floods. The heavy rains resulted in massive landslides and huge destruction of life and property. Rain gauges and radars are conventional tools used to monitor heavy-rainfall events. An accurate measurement of rainfall can be made if there is a dense and homogeneous network of rain guages over a region.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59172
Title: Green tea and pomegranate hull extracts as additives for biodiesel.
Author: S Nivetha, D Vetha Roy.
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 10), pp. 1346-1347, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: Green tea, pomegranate hull, biodiesel.
Abstract: Vegetable oil/animal fat is made up of one mole of glycerol and three moles of fatty acids, referred to as triglycerides. They differ in the nature of their carbon chain and the amount of unsaturation. They are highly viscous, water insoluble/ hydrophobic and contain larger fractions of free fatty acids apart from phospholipids, sterols, water, odourants and other impurities. These qualilties impede their direct use in engines and require modifications.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59171
Title: Open access Mycobacterium tuberculosis clone repository: a community resource by OSDD members.
Author: R S Santhosh, Amit Tutheja, Soumashree Basu, Aishwarya Subramianian, S Sundharraman, Anita Kumari, M Vaidhyanathan, Athul Mohan, R Mahalakshmi, S Shankaranarayanan, Shreyas Chordia, G Divya, Akansha Virmani, Kandarp Joshi, Shishir Kumar Yadav, Lakshm
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 10), pp. 1342-1345, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: Open access, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, clone repository, OSDD members.
Abstract: Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative organism of tuberculosis (TB), is often described as one of the most successful pathogens. With the release of the complete genome sequence of Mtb, a complete and comprehensive understanding of the pathogen is eagerly anticipated, so that novel strategies for tackling the disease could be evolved. The Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) initiative of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has conceptualized and implemented integrated platforms where innovation in drug discovery can be taken forward through a process-oriented activity for discovering novel therapeutic strategies against TB..
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59170
Title: Climate change and seed quality: an alarming issue in crop husbandry.
Author: Aniruddha Maity, Pragati Pramanik.
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 9), pp. 1336-1338, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: climate change, seed quality, crop husbandary
Abstract: With every sunrise, the world is being challenged to produce adequate food for its ever-growing population. Besides some inherent bottlenecks in agriculture, a basket of emerging problems has narrowed down the smooth pursuance of enhanced productivity. Among these, the burning issue of climate change and its possible consequences on agricultural production has recieved importance late, but the problem is very real. If nothing is done to seize or adapt to climate change, the situation will be harsh for us in the coming years. Agricultural productivity is a function of better inputs, among which quality seed holds utmost importance. Use of only 20-25% quality seeds, i.e. purchased new every year of total quality seed demand by Indian farmers makes it possible to produce about 260 mt foodgrains annually. So we can think of the production potential of high quality seeds. But, a steady temporal fluctuation in climatic variables has put seed quality under threat.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59169
Title: Crevasses detection in Himalayan glaciers using ground-penetrating radar.
Author: K K Singh, H S Negi, A Ganju, A V Kulkarni, A Kumar, V D Mishra, S Kumar.
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 9), pp. 1288-1295, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: Crevassess detection, glaciers, ground penetrating radar.
Abstract: Identification and mapping of crevasses in glaciated regions is important for safe movement. However, the remote and rugged glacial terrain in the Himalaya poses greater challenges for field data collection. In the present study crevasse signatures were collected from Siachen and Samudra Tapu glaciers in the Indian Himalaya using ground-penetrating radar (GPR). The surveys were conducted using the antennas of 250 MHz frequency in ground mode and 350 MHz in airborne mode. The identified signatures of open and hidden crevasses in GPR profiles collected in ground mode were validated by ground truthing. The crevasse zones and buried boulder areas in a glacier were identified using a combination of airborne GPR profiles and SAR data, and the same have been validated with the high-resolution optical satellite imagery (Cartosat-1) and Survey of India mapsheet. Using multi-sensor data, a crevasse map for Samudra Tapu glacier was prepared. The present methodology can also be used for mapping the crevasse zones in other glaciers in the Himalaya.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59168
Title: Modelling potential distribution of Sapium sebiferum - an invasive tree species in western Himalaya.
Author: Vikrant Jaryan, Arunava Datta, Sanjay Kr. Uniyal, Amit Kumar, R C Gupta, R D Singh.
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 9), pp. 1282-1288, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: Mesic areas, plant invasion, Sapium sebiferum, species distribution models.
Abstract: The use of species distribution models is gaining popularity in biological sciences. We used Maxent, a Maximum entropy-based program, to predict distribution, we used field-collected coordinates of 177 presence locations of the species. Additionally, environmental data downloaded from the worldclim data portal were also used. Maxent was then run using default settings with 70% of the locations being used for training and the remaining 30% for testing the model. Area under curve for the receiving operator analyses measured at all possible threshold values training (0.993) and test (0.993) was close to 1, thereby showing the accuracy of the model.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59167
Title: Application of fractal geometry in determining optimal quadrat size for vegetation sampling.
Author: Anubhav Chaturvedi, P Rama Chandra Prasad.
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 9), pp. 1275-1281, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: Ecological patterns, fractal geometry, quadrat size, spatial dependence, vegetation sampling.
Abstract: Geometry in ecological patterns of landscape and vegetation is not truly fractal, and varies across a range of scales, whereas fractal geometry provides tools for predicting and describing ecological patterns. In this study, fractal analysis is used to assess presence of pseudo random quadrats or spatial dependence which hamper generality and performance of classical inferential statistics. Fractal dimension (FD) as a function of scale is used to determine quadrat size which eliminates spatial dependence. The semivariograms are plotted with fractograms to correlate structures of spatial dependence of the properties studied. The use of FD as a degree of spatial dependence of variables is the basis of applications of fractals.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59166
Title: Improved content based classification and retrieval of images using support vector machine.
Author: V Karpagam, R Rangarajan.
Editor: R Srinivasan.
Year: 2013
Publisher: Current Science Association, Indian Academy of Sciences.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: Current Science Vol 105(no. 9), pp. 1267-1275, 2013
Subject: Current Science
Keywords: Colour image representation, discrete wavelet decomposition, image classification, image feature extraction.
Abstract: Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) entails probing for similar images for a query image in an image database and returning the most relevant images. The proposed methodology aims at improving the classification and retrieval accuracy of images. Wavelet histograms are used to design a simple and efficient CBIR system with good performance and without using any intensive image-processing feature extraction technique. The unique indexed colour histogram and wavelet decomposition-based horizontal, vertical and diagonal image attributes serve as the main features for the retrieval system. Support vector machine is used for classification and thereby to improve retrieval accuracy of the system. The performance of the proposed content-based image classification and retreival system is evaluated with the standard SIMPLIcity dataset. Precision is used as a metric to measure the performance of the system. The system is validated with holdout and k-fold cross validation techniques. The proposed system performs better than SIMPLIcity and all the other compared methods.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59165
Title: Namma Bengalurina Vrikshagalu
Author: T V Ramachandra, Bharath H Aithal, Vinay S, Rao G R, Gouri Kulkarni, Tara N M, Nupur Nagar. Ganesh Hegde.
Editor: T V Ramachandra.
Year: 2014
Publisher: EWRG, CES, IISc.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: ENVIS Technical Report: 75
Subject: Namma Bengalurina Vrikshagalu
Keywords: Bengaluru, Bangalore, Trees, tree density, vegetation density, trees per person.
Abstract: None
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None
ID: 59164
Title: Trees of Bengaluru.
Author: T V Ramachandra, Bharath H Aithal, Vinay S, Rao G R, Gouri Kulkarni, Tara N M, Nupur Nagar.
Editor: T V Ramachandra.
Year: 2013
Publisher: EWRG, CES, IISc.
Source: Centre for Ecological Sciences
Reference: ENVIS Technical Report: 75
Subject: Trees of Bengaluru.
Keywords: Bengaluru, Bangalore, Trees, tree density, vegetation density, trees per person.
Abstract: Urban vegetation includes trees, shrubs and herbs in public and private lands (parks, streets, backyards) in the landscape dominated by paved surface. Urban vegetation plays a vital role as moderates micro climate apart from sequestration of green house gases (CO2, etc) and aid in the percolation of water. World health organisation recommended minimum green space of 9.5 km2/person) considering the services (oxygen, moderation of micro climate) and goods in the urban environment. Estimates indicate that about 6 tons of carbon is sequestered by 1 hectare forests annually and this accounts to 6 kg/tree/year. Per capita respiratory carbon ranges from 192 to 328 kg/year depending on physiology of humans (525-900 gms/day/person depending on the physiology). This means 32 to 55 trees per person in a region is required to mitigate respiratory CO2 only.
Location: TE 15 New Biology Building
Literature cited 1: None
Literature cited 2: None