Variability of Temperature Extremes in Northwest Himalayas during Early 21st Century.

<p>In recent years, extreme events and their severe damage have become more common around the world. It is widely known that atmospheric greenhouse gases have contributed to global warming. <br>A set of appropriate indicators describing the extremes of climate change can be used to study the extent of climate change. This study reveals the trends of temperature extreme indices on the spatial scale in the western part of Northwest Himalayas. The study is conducted at 13 climate stations lies at a different altitude of the study area.The Daily maximum and minimum temperature data during 2000--2018 of stations obtained from the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) and Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA). The 12 extreme temperature indices (FD, SU, TXx , TXn., TNx, TNn, TN10p , TN90p, TX10p , TX90p, CSDI, WSDI) recommended by ETCCDI (Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices) are used to study the variabilities in temperature extremes. These indices are characterized based on amplitude, persistence, and frequency. The analysis is performed by using R package of extremes “RClimDEX”. The analysis shows the frequency of summer days (Su) and warm spells (WSDI) have increasing trends in the Southwest region, whereas the frequency of cold spells and frost days have decreasing trends observed in the Northern region of the study areas. The maximum and minimum values of daily maximum temperature (TXX, TXN) increase in the foothill area of the region and decreasing trends in the high elevation region. The day and night get cool in the Northwest region, whereas the days and nights are showing warmer trends in low elevation regions of the study area. Overall, the study concludes that the Northwestern parts have cool trends while South West and South eastern parts have warm trends during the early 21st century.</p><p><strong>Key words:</strong>  Temperature Extremes, Northwest Himalayas, Trends, R-Climdex, Climate Change</p>

Plummeting anthropogenic environmental degradation by amending nutrient-N input method in saffron growing soils of north-west Himalayas

Nitrous-oxide emission and nitrate addition from agriculture to earth’s environment are two main agriculture related anthropogenic causes of environmental degradation that needs greater attention. For addressing the aforesaid issue, new techniques/practices need to be developed and implemented. The present investigation, which was focused on this issue, resulted in developing a new mode of nitrogen (N) placement, i.e. ‘mid rib placement upper to corms in two splits (MRPU-2S)’, that could reduce nitrous oxide N emission by around 70.11% and, nitrate N leaching and runoff by around 68.26 and 67.09%, respectively, over conventional method, in saffron growing soils of northwest Himalayas. Besides plummeting environmental degradation, MRPU-2S further resulted in enhancing saffron yield by 33.33% over conventional method. The findings of the present investigation were used to develop new empirical models for predicting saffron yield, nitrate N leaching and nitrous-oxide N emission. The threshold limits of nitrate N leaching and nitrous oxide N emission have also been reported exclusively in the present study.

Performance Analysis of IMD High-Resolution Gridded Rainfall (0.25° × 0.25°) and Satellite Estimates for Detecting Cloudburst Events over the Northwest Himalayas

The presence of a sparse rain gauge network in complex terrain like the Himalayas has encouraged the present study for the concerned evaluation of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) ground-based gridded rainfall data for highly prevalent events like cloudbursts over the northwest Himalayas (NWH). To facilitate the abovementioned task, we intend to evaluate the performance of these observations at 0.25° × 0.25° (latitude–longitude) resolution against a predefined threshold (i.e., 99.99th percentile), thereby initially comprehending the success of IMD data in capturing the cloudburst events reported in media during 2014–16. Further, seven high-resolution satellite products, namely, CMORPH V0.x, PERSIANN-CDR, TMPA 3B42RT V7, IMERG V06B, INSAT-3D multispectral rainfall (IMR), CHIRPS V.2, and PERSIANN-CCS are evaluated against the IMD dataset. The following are our main results. 1) Six out of 18 cloudburst events are detected using IMD gridded data. 2) The contingency statistics at the 99.99th percentile reveal that the probability of detection (POD) of TMPA varies from 19.4% to 53.9% over the geographical stretch of NWH, followed by PERSIANN-CDR (18.6%–48.4%) and IMERG (4.9%–17.8%). 3) A new metric proposed as improved POD (IPOD) has been developed in this work, which takes into account the temporal lag that exists between observed and satellite estimates during an event period. Results show that for an event analysis IPOD provides a better comparison. The IPOD for TMPA is 32.8%–74.4%, followed by PERSIANN-CDR (34.4%–69.11%) and IMERG (15.3%–39.0%). 4) The conclusion stands as precipitation estimates obtained from CHIRPS are most suitable for monitoring cloudburst events over NWH with IPOD of 60.5%–78.6%.

Draft Genome Sequence of Halobacillus trueperi SS1, Isolated from Lunsu, a Saltwater Body in the Northwest Himalayas

We report here the genome sequence of halophilic Halobacillus trueperi SS1, isolated from the Lunsu saltwater body in India. The bacteria are Gram positive and rod shaped.