On the occurance of crowned river turtle, Hardella thurjii in Gujarat, India

The crowned river turtle, Hardella thurjii (Gray, 1831) is widely distributed from Pakistan to Bangladesh, and possibly in western Myanmar. It prefers the middle and lower reaches of the northern river systems on the Indian subcontinent, comprising the Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra, and their tributaries. The species is classified as Endangered, but nationally remains a poorly protected species under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act. This communication presents the first photographic evidence of the crowned river turtle, from Gujarat State, India. It was previously reported from North Gujarat two decades ago, but without any evidence.

Environmental Degradation of Satajaan Beel, Lakhimpur, Assam

Wetlands are most common but very important physical features present in Assam state. Lakhimpur is a administrative district situated on the northern river bank of the mighty Brahmaputra river, having a large number of wetland. Though Satajaan is a very small sized wetland situated on the flood plain area of Ranganadi River but plays a crucial role to the entire surrounding area. Climate change already become a threat to the wetland, at the same time different anthropogenic activities such as encroachment, picnic in the winter and other environmental unfriendly development project have become challenging that lead to affect in water quality and various ecological disturbance to the wetland. Satajaan is well known for hosting local as well as migratory birds, which was created by 1950’s devastating earthquake, but it is seem that the numbe of bird visiting to the wetland is decreasing past for few years. Keywords: Satajaan, Wetland of Lakhimpur, Wetland degradation.

Conservation breeding of Northern River Terrapin Batagur baska (Gray, 1830) in Sundarban Tiger Reserve, India

The population of Northern River Terrapin Batagur baska is ‘Critically Endangered’ and threatened with extinction. In India, the species was once known to occur in the mangroves of West Bengal and Odisha. The sub-population in Odisha is suspected to have been wiped out. The Sundarban Tiger Reserve and the Turtle Survival Alliance launched a modest conservation breeding program in 2012 to recover the species using a small number of adults as founders. Gravid adult females are kept in a dedicated breeding enclosure with minimal disturbance, eggs are incubated outdoor on an artificial nesting beach, and hatchlings are raised to develop assurance colonies for purposes of reintroduction in future. Currently, the project holds 12 adults and over 350 juveniles of various size classes. Three additional assurance colonies were developed for 70 sub-adults from 2012–13 batches, using rain-fed ponds within STR.

THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE: SLEEPING SICKNESS, ONCHOCERCIASIS, AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES IN GHANA, 1930–60

The Northern Territories Protectorate and its people were located on the economic and political margins of Britain's Gold Coast Crown Colony (now Ghana) throughout the colonial period. The article examines how the region's peripherality allowed the Gold Coast Tsetse Control Department to carry out an extensive campaign of bush clearing and resettlement along northern river valleys from the 1930s to 1950s, with little supervision by the Gold Coast Medical Department or northern officials. Intended to control human and animal sleeping sickness and to meet the economic preferences of the colony's central administration, this campaign had the effect of greatly increasing the exposure of northern communities to another disease, onchocerciasis, causing widespread blindness and contributing to a serious public health crisis in the early independence era.

The possibilities of comparing for multitemporal imagery of various resolution under the northern river deltas dynamics investigation

With the warming of the climate and the resumption of the Northern Sea Route, studies of the dynamics of the northern deltas, that close the exit to the ocean, have intensified. The best way to detect changes is to compare images, obtained at the end of the last century from the Landsat/ETM satellite (resolution R = 30 m) and modern Sentinel-2/MSI images (R = 10 m). To identify the effect of differences in the resolution of the compared images on the accuracy of determining changes in the coastline, a graphical simulation of reproducing changes (areas of coastal erosion or sediment accumulation) at the pixel level was performed. Reproduction of changes had been simulated for coastlines, that coincide in the direction of the pixel grid lines and deviate from them at angles of 15°, 30°, 45°, when the coastline is shifted from 10 to 40 m. It has been revealed that it is possible to determine the displacement of the coastline starting from the value of 20 m from multitemporal images with a resolution of 30 and 10 m. For coastlines directed along the pixel grid lines, it is possible to downplay (or exaggerate) the washout (or accumulation) band by 1/2 RL + 1/2 LS = 20 m. Coastlines that are tilted to the pixel grid may show false changes, especially if the shoreline position is unchanged or the offset is small (10 m). The kind of the distortion strongly depends on the position of the real coastline within the large Landsat pixels. The greatest distortions are characteristic of coastlines that occupy a peripheral position in the cells of the pixel grid. The simulation results should be used when preparing palettes to determine changes from combined multi-temporal images.

Drought alters the biogeochemistry of boreal stream networks

Drought is a global phenomenon, with widespread implications for freshwater ecosystems. While droughts receive much attention at lower latitudes, their effects on northern river networks remain unstudied. We combine a reach-scale manipulation experiment, observations during the extreme 2018 drought, and historical monitoring data to examine the impact of drought in northern boreal streams. Increased water residence time during drought promoted reductions in aerobic metabolism and increased concentrations of reduced solutes in both stream and hyporheic water. Likewise, data during the 2018 drought revealed widespread hypoxic conditions and shifts towards anaerobic metabolism, especially in headwaters. Finally, long-term data confirmed that past summer droughts have led to similar metabolic alterations. Our results highlight the potential for drought to promote biogeochemical shifts that trigger poor water quality conditions in boreal streams. Given projected increases in hydrological extremes at northern latitudes, the consequences of drought for the health of running waters warrant attention.

Mapping and Damage Assessment of “Royal” Burial Mounds in the Siberian Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings in Tuva Republic, southern Siberia, is arguably one of the most important archaeological landscapes in the eastern Eurasian steppes. Nonetheless, little information exists about the spatial characteristics and preservation conditions of this burial ground consisting of large “royal” mounds. We map the large monuments of the Uyuk Valley’s northern river terrace and assess their state of preservation based on high-resolution optical satellite data. The burial site consists of several hundred mounds, over 150 of them with diameters of more than 25 m, the largest monuments are bigger than 100 m in diameter. This makes the Valley of the Kings in Tuva Republic one of the largest Early Iron Age burial sites in the Eurasian steppes. Unfortunately, around 92% of the large monuments are in bad condition, mostly due to looting.