Importance of snow and glacier meltwater for agriculture on the Indo-Gangetic Plain

The Indo-Gangetic Plain, feeding more than 9 billion people, are facing serious water scarcity due to expanding populations and development in agriculture and industry. Rainfall concentrated in monsoon season, about 70% of precipitation falls between June and September, causes the imbalance between water supply and demand. A large amount of groundwater is extracted for irrigation during dry season, causes the groundwater to decline. Increasing glacier meltwater under the ongoing warming of global climate from upstream high mountainous also modulates the variation of terrestrial water storage (TWS) in this region. Thus, estimating and evaluating anthropogenic water depletion are beneficial to water resources protection and management in the Indo-Gangetic Plain.Here, we propose a method to remove the influence of climate variability and obtain human-driven TWS variability. Atmosphere-driven TWS variability is estimated by a relationship between change in TWS (GRACE data) and precipitation and temperature, which has been confirmed that these two variables (precipitation and temperature) already explain a substantial fraction of continental-scale run off dynamics in previous studies. Glacier melting recharge from upstream high mountainous is calculated by the proportion with the temperature.Results show that the rate of anthropogenic depletion of water in Indus Plain increased from -5.5 km3/yr to -25.0 km3/yr during 2003 - 2011 due to the deficient precipitation, and remained stable from 2011 to 2016 at the rate of ~-26.0 km3/yr with increasing precipitation and enhancing glacier meltwater recharge. The rate of anthropogenic depletion of water in Ganges Plain (including the Brahmaputra River) slowed from -37.7 km3/yr to -12.0 km3/yr during 2003 -2011due to the increased glacier meltwater recharge, which reduced the pressure of irrigation water in northwest of the Plain. However, with the increasing temperature since 2014, The rate of anthropogenic depletion of water increased to -20.0 km3/yr in 2016.

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Seasonal and trend analysis of TWS for the Indo-Gangetic plain using GRACE data

Geocarto International ◽

10.1080/10106049.2019.1573856 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (12) ◽

pp. 1343-1359

Author(s):

Saurabh Srivastava ◽

Onkar Dikshit

Keyword(s):

Trend Analysis ◽

Gangetic Plain ◽

Grace Data ◽

Indo Gangetic Plain

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Severe air pollution and characteristics of light-absorbing particles in a typical rural area of the Indo-Gangetic Plain

Environmental Science and Pollution Research ◽

10.1007/s11356-020-07618-6 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (10) ◽

pp. 10617-10628 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Pengfei Chen ◽

Shichang Kang ◽

Lekhendra Tripathee ◽

Arnico K. Panday ◽

Maheswar Rupakheti ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Rural Area ◽

Gangetic Plain ◽

Indo Gangetic Plain

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Impact of Integrated Agronomic Practices on Soil Fertility and Respiration on the Indo-Gangetic Plain of North India

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11020402 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 402

Author(s):

Rama Kant Dubey ◽

Pradeep Kumar Dubey ◽

Rajan Chaurasia ◽

Ch Srinivasa Rao ◽

Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil Abhilash

Keyword(s):

Soil Respiration ◽

Soil Quality ◽

Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Block Design ◽

North India ◽

Gangetic Plain ◽

Agronomic Practices ◽

Soil Sustainability ◽

Indo Gangetic Plain

Global agricultural production is accountable for the emission of ~30% of greenhouse gases. Therefore, the wide-scale adoptions of low-input, soil-friendly, and resource-conserving agronomic practices are imperative for the ‘planet healthy food production’ and also for reducing the carbon emissions from agricultural soil. In this context, the present study aimed to analyze the impacts of integrated agronomic interventions i.e., the application of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) + reduced tillage (RT), biochar + RT, and AMF + biochar + RT, on spatiotemporal variations in soil-quality and soil-sustainability indicators, including microbial and soil respiration, in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) of North India. For this, field experiments on the above-mentioned agronomic interventions were employed using three different staple crops (Zea mays, Vigna mungo, and Brassica juncea) growing in three different agro-climatic zones of IGP (Varanasi, Sultanpur, and Gorakhpur) in a randomized block design. Periodic data collection was done to analyze the changes in physiochemical, biological, and biochemical properties of the soil, and statistical analyses were done accordingly. Irrespective of the sites, the experimental results proved that the integrated application of AMF + biochar + RT in V. mungo resulted in the highest soil organic carbon (i.e., 135% increment over the control) and microbial biomass carbon (24%), whereas the same application (i.e., AMF + biochar + RT) in Z. mays had the maximum reduction in microbial (32%) and soil (44%) respiration. On the other hand, enhanced occurrence of glomalin activity (98%) was noted in Z. mays cropping for all the sites. Significant negative correlation between soil respiration and glomalin activity under AMF + biochar + RT (−0.85), AMF + RT (−0.82), and biochar + RT (−0.62) was an indication of glomalin’s role in the reduced rate of soil respiration. The research results proved that the combined application of AMF + biochar + RT was the best practice for enhancing soil quality while reducing respiration. Therefore, the development of suitable packages of integrated agronomic practices is essential for agricultural sustainability.

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