Long-term ecological monitoring on forest ecosystems in Indian Himalayan Region: Criteria and indicator approach

2020

Ecological Indicators

294

Ecological perturbations caused by biotic invasion have been identified as a growing threat to global sustainability. Invasive alien plants species (IAPS) are considered to be one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss and thereby altering the ecosystem services and socio-economic conditions through different mechanisms. Although the ecological impacts of IAPS are well documented, there is a dearth of studies regarding their economic quantification, livelihood considerations, biotechnological prospects (phytoremediation, bioenergy, phytosynthesis of nanoparticles, biomedical, industrial applications etc.) and human health risk assessments of IAPS. In this context, the current panoramic review aimed to investigate the environmental, socio-ecological and health risks posed by IAPS as well as the compounded impact of IAPS with habitat fragmentation, climate and land use changes. To this end, the need of an integrated trans-disciplinary research is emphasized for the sustainable management of IAPS. The management prospects can be further strengthened through their linkage with geo-spatial technologies (remote sensing and GIS) by mapping and monitoring the IAPS spread. Further, the horizon of IAPS management is expanded to ecological indicator perspectives of IAPS, biosecurity, and risk assessment protocols with critical discussion. Moreover, positive as well as negative implications of the IAPS on environment, health, ecosystem services and socio-economy (livelihood) are listed so that a judicious policy framework could be developed for the IAPS management in order to mitigate the human health implications.

Section: Ecological Indicator Perspectives Of the Iapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Invasive alien plant species: Their impact on environment, ecosystem services and human health

Kumar

2020

Ecological Indicators

294

“…Herbal healer's particularly, in high altitude villages claimed that many of MPs they use in traditional system of medicine now flower and fruit earlier than before. Expansion of alien invasive species, i.e., Lantana camara, Ageratina adenophora and Bidens pilosa, has also been reported in the IHR states (Negi et al, 2012a(Negi et al, , 2012b(Negi et al, , 2016(Negi et al, , 2019bPathak et al, 2019). Local communities of the region reported that the natural water springs are drying and declining very fast (Sharma & Shrestha, 2016).…”

Section: Perception-based Studies On Climate Changementioning

confidence: 93%

Review and synthesis of climate change studies in the Himalayan region

Negi

Tiwari

et al. 2021

Environ Dev Sustain

Self Cite

There are a few regions in the world, where climate change impacts are more intense than other regions of the world, and Himalaya is the case. The Himalaya, one of the biodiversity hotspot regions and provider of ecosystem services to billion of people all across the world. Present study reviewed and synthesized climate change studies in the Himalayan region in general and Indian Himalayan region (IHR) in particular. Analysis of the literature indicates exponentially increase in climate change studies 2005 onward in the IHR, and maximum are from Jammu and Kashmir (105) followed by Uttarakhand (100) and Himachal Pradesh (77). Among the subject types, maximum climate change impact was studied on water resources/glacier retreat (141 studies) followed by agriculture (113) and forests/biodiversity (86). Increasing temperature, frequent drought spells, erratic rainfall and declining snowfall are commonly reported indicators of climate change. For instance, temperature is reported to increase by 1.5 °C in the Himalaya than an average increase of 0.74 °C globally in last century; however, it varied in eastern (0.1 °C per decade and western Himalayas (0.09 °C per decade. An increase in temperature between 0.28 and 0.80 °C per decade was reported for North-western Himalaya and 0.20-1.00 °C per decade for Eastern Himalaya. The higher altitude of Himalayan and Trans-Himalayan zone are reported to be warming at higher rates. Many of the glaciers were reported to be retreating in both eastern and western Himalaya. Heavy rainfall is becoming very common in the region often accompanied by cloudbursts that aggravate flood situation many times. Perception-based studies of the region reported to provide firsthand and detailed descriptions of climate change indicators and impacts from rural and remote areas, where no instrumental data are available.

“…The climatic shifts (in terms of temperature and precipitation variability) in Himalayan region can impact the range shift of IAPs. Thus IAP ecology is complicated by climate/other abiotic changes; therefore, in IHR the implementation of Long-Term Ecological Monitoring (LTEM) with well-defined indicators is the need of the hour (Negi et al 2019).…”

Section: Plant Invasion Ecology In Indian Himalayan Region and Biodiversity Hotspotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, study on interrelationship of plant invasion with climate change, and anthropogenic disturbance induced spatial heterogeneity is required in future to fill-up the knowledge gap. Drastic/abrupt climatic changes and anthropogenic disturbances in forested landscapes of these PAs may be Plant invasion ecology should also be linked with ecological informatics/databases, simulation/modelling and long-term ecological research (LTERs)/LTEM for assessing the linkage with other environmental perturbations e.g., global climate change (Bakker et al 1996;Singh, 2011;Negi et al 2019). The future prospects in N.E.…”

Section: Future Prospects In Indian Himalayan and North East Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant invasion in protected areas, the Indian Himalayan region, and the North East India: progress and prospects

Kumar

Proc.Indian Natl. Sci. Acad.

2021

Global biodiversity is not uniformly distributed in terms of species richness. The global and national protected areas (PAs), the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) and the North East (NE) India, are extremely rich in plant biodiversity, contributing to the environment and the socio-economy/livelihood prospects, linked with human health or well-being. However, the anthropogenic disturbances have modified the vegetation structure of PAs, IHR, and NE India, such that the pristine landscapes are now ripe for the encroachment of invasive alien plants (IAPs). The plants invasions is now increasingly being realised as a major threat to biodiversity globally and the ecologically sensitive mountain ecosystems are no exception. The abrupt spread of IAP in these regions can significantly exacerbate the biodiversity conservation problems, as these regions are already faced with challenges of habitat fragmentation and climate change. Also, the complex interactions among the plants invasion, habitat destruction and climate change can further impose a challenge to the restoration ecologists. Interestingly, the invading plants are equipped with several species or site or habitat-specific adaptive mechanisms like the presence of allelochemicals as novel weapons that facilitate their landscape spread and ecological dynamics. This review describes the theories or hypotheses which may account for the accelerated IAPs spread in IHR, NE India and PAs. The research progress in IHR and NE India is discussed with respect to worst invaders like Lantana camara, Chromolaena odorata, Ageratum conyzoides, Parthenium hysterophorus, Mikania micrantha, etc. In this respect, the outcome of preliminary research in NE India to identify the dominant invaders through quantitative methods is also mentioned. Lastly, the management strategies are described to mitigate the IAPs hazards for sustainable biodiversity conservation.