Mountain Regions Of Asia Research Articles

Examining the microbial composition of natural springs in Bhaderwah, Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Natural springs are the main source of water supply for domestic and agricultural use for humans living in the mountainous regions of Asia. Increasing anthropogenic activities with associated waste load, coupled with inadequate sanitation, and contamination of natural water resources and the environment are emerging as important public health issues. We performed a prospective microbiological and physicochemical investigation of water samples from seven distinct natural springs situated at an altitude of 1615m in the Bhaderwah region of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Bacterial groups belonging to opportunistic pathogens such as members of Moraxellaceae (Acinetobacter), Arcobacteraceae (Pseudoarcobacter), Pseudomonadaceae (Pseudomonas), Oxalobacteraceae (Massilia), and Flavobacteriaceae (Flavobacterium) were observed. The total coliform test indicated an intermediate level of risk of fecal contamination of the springs, except for one site. Through a questionnaire-based survey of the local population, we discovered that around 40% of participants had suffered from waterborne diseases including typhoid (~14%) and diarrhea (~11%). Our data suggests that increased surveillance of fecal contamination and heterotrophic opportunistic pathogens is needed to enhance water quality and reduce health risks for people living in mountainous regions.

Bioactive fraction of Rhodiola algida against chronic hypoxia-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension and its anti-proliferation mechanism in rats

Ethnopharmacological relevanceRhodiola algida var. tangutica (Maxim.) S.H. Fu is a perennial plant of the Crassulaceae family that grows in the mountainous regions of Asia. The rhizome and roots of this plant have been long used as Tibetan folk medicine for preventing high latitude sickness. Aim of the studyThe aim of this study was to determine the effect of bioactive fraction from R. algida (ACRT) on chronic hypoxia-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension (HPAH) and to understand the possible mechanism of its pharmacodynamic actions. Materials and methodsMale Sprague-Dawley rats were separated into five groups: control group, hypoxia group, and hypoxia+ACRT groups (62.5, 125, and 250mg/kg/day of ACRT). The chronic hypoxic environment was created in a hypobaric chamber by adjusting the inner pressure and oxygen content for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks, major physiological parameters of pulmonary arterial hypertension such as mPAP, right ventricle index (RV/LV+S, RVHI), hematocrit (Hct) levels and the medial vessel thickness (wt%) were measured. Protein and mRNA expression levels of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), cyclin D1, p27Kip1 and cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4)) were detected by western blotting and real time PCR respectively. Chemical profile of ACRT was revealed by ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS). ResultsThe results showed that a successful HPAH rat model was established in a hypobaric chamber for 4 weeks, as indicated by the significant increase in mPAP, RV/LV+S, RV/BW and wt%. Compared with the normal group, administration of ACRT reduced mPAP, right ventricular hypertrophy, pulmonary small artery wall thickness, and damage in ultrastructure induced by hypoxia in rats. PCNA, cyclin D1, and CDK4 expression was reduced (p<0.05), and p27Kip1 expression increased (p<0.05) in hypoxia+ACRT groups compared to hypoxia. 38 constituents in bioactive fraction were identified by UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS. ConclusionOur results suggest that ACRT could alleviate chronic hypoxia-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension. And its anti-proliferation mechanism in rats based on decreasing PCNA, cyclin D1, CDK4 expression level and inhibiting p27Kip1 degradation.

Studies on forest landscape restoration in hilly and mountainous regions of Asia and Africa – an introduction to the Special Issue

The field of forest landscape restoration (FLR) is quickly gaining traction now that national commitments to restore degraded lands under the 2011 Bonn Challenge have reached upwards of 160 million ha. While the growing literature on FLR and associated methodologies being proposed emphasizes the importance of including stakeholders in decision making and implementation, local communities in hilly and mountainous regions often face particular challenges. The papers in this Special Issue of the International Forestry Review shed light on some of the approaches incorporated in FLR design and its outcomes in cases from China, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. These include direct subsidies or PES, land distributions and devolution of resource rights, engagement of communities in participatory management, and other approaches. Taken together, the studies in this Special Issue bring together a range of insights into the diversity of approaches favoring the implementation of FLR, particularly in sloping landscapes, under varying social and ecological conditions.

The Impact of Policy and Institutional Environment on Costs and Benefits of Sustainable Agricultural Land Uses: The Case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

As in other mountain regions of Asia, agricultural lands in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh are undergoing degradation due primarily to environmentally incompatible land-use systems such as shifting cultivation (jhum) and annual cash crops. The suitable land-use systems such as agroforestry and timber tree plantation provide benefit to the society at large, but they might not provide attractive economic benefits to farmers, eventually constraining a wide-scale adoption of such land-use systems. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate agricultural land-use systems from both societal and private perspectives in the pursuit of promoting particularly environmentally sustainable systems. This article evaluated five major land-use systems being practiced in CHT, namely jhum, annual cash crops, horticulture, agroforestry, and timber plantation. The results of the financial analysis revealed the annual cash crops as the most attractive land use and jhum as the least attractive of the five land-use systems considered under the study. Horticulture, timber plantation, and agroforestry, considered to be suitable land-use systems particularly for mountainous areas, held the middle ground between these two systems. Annual cash crops provided the highest financial return at the cost of a very high rate of soil erosion. When the societal cost of soil erosion is considered, annual cash crops appear to be the most costly land-use system, followed by jhum and horticulture. Although financially less attractive compared to annual cash crops and horticulture, agroforestry and timber plantation are the socially most beneficial land-use systems. Findings of the alternative policy analyses indicate that there is a good prospect for making environmentally sustainable land-use systems, such as agroforestry and timber plantation, attractive for the farmers by eliminating existing legal and institutional barriers, combined with the provision of necessary support services and facilities.

Financial and economic suitability of agroforestry as an alternative to shifting cultivation: The case of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

As in other mountain regions of Asia, agricultural lands in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh are undergoing degradation due primarily to environmentally incompatible land use systems such as distorted from of shifting cultivation ( jhum) requiring the slashing and burning of vegetation every year. Agroforestry is considered to be environmentally suitable for the mountainous areas like CHT, as the rate of soil erosion under such systems is considerably less than jhum. To design strategies in the pursuit of promoting agroforestry its financial and economic benefits need to be evaluated systematically. Based on three criteria such as benefit–cost ratio, net present value, and return to labor, this paper evaluated the financial and economic benefits of agroforestry and jhum using farm household data. Information was collected from farm households and agricultural commodity traders through questionnaire surveys, case studies, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews following a two-stage sampling method. The results show that economic returns from agroforestry are better than from jhum in terms of all the three criteria. When economic benefits of two land use systems are analyzed by taking into account the cost of nutrient depletion arising from soil erosion, agroforestry appears to be more attractive than jhum. The analysis revealed that despite higher environmental and economic benefits the low adoption of agroforestry is largely attributed to policy and institutional constraints such as insecure land tenure, complicated transit rules, double levy on agricultural commodities, and farmers’ poor socio-economic condition. Findings of the study indicate that there is a prospect for promoting agroforestry by eliminating the existing policy and institutional barriers combined with the provision of necessary support services and facilities.

Energetic analysis of global topography

Diagrams of the various distributions of the potential energy of the continental and oceanic-bottom topography as a quantitative indices of energy consumption by tectonic processes have been calculated and plotted for the first time on the basis of high-resolution ETOPO 2′ digital data on a 2′ × 2 ′ uniform network with height intervals of 100 m. The potential energy of the continents and oceanic bottom is mainly stored in mountainous regions of Asia and South America with an anomalous type of energy distribution and in mid-oceanic ridges, respectively. The topography of the oceanic bottom bears five times more energy than the continental topography. With allowance for the isostatic compensation of denudation, the bulk reserve of the potential energy of the global topography is estimated at 1033 erg, a value which amounts to only an insignificant fraction of other items in the energetic budget of the Earth. Fifty percent of this energy has been gained over the last 70 Ma. Currently, the rate of accumulation of the potential energy of the topography is 1025 erg/yr, i.e., 1000 times less than the bulk geothermal flow and 10 times less than energy released by all earthquakes during a year. So far, there are no grounds to bind the potential energy of the Earth’s topography with a specific source.

Haemaphysalis (Allophysalis) garhwalensis sp. n. (Acarina: Ixodidae) Parasitizing Sheep and Goats in Garhwal Region, Uttar Pradesh, India

Four previously described species included in the subgenus Allophysalis of the genus Haemaphysalis occur in high altitudes of Eurasia. A fifth species, H. (A.) garhwalensis sp. n., here described from adults from the Himalayan mountain range in Garhwal region, Uttar Pradesh, India, is structurally intermediate between H. (A.) pospelovashtromae Hoogstraal and H. (A.) tibetensis Hoogstraal. Hoogstraal (1966) included in the subgenus Allophysalis of the genus Haemaphysalis four species from high elevations in mountainous regions of Asia and southeastern Europe. These were H. (A.) kopetdaghicus Karbabayev from Turkmen SSR; H. (A.) pospelovashtromae Hoogstraal from Georgia SSR, Tadzhik SSR, Kirgiz SSR, and Chulyshman River valley, eastern Altai in RSFSR; H. (A.) tibetensis Hoogstraal from Tsela Dzong, Tsangpo valley, southeastern Tibet, and Yatung, at the mouth of Chumbi valley, southwestern Tibet; and H. (A.) warbtlrtoni Nuttall from Szechwan Province, China, and the Himalayan region of Uttar Pradesh, India. The discovery of a fifth species, H. (A.) garhwalensis sp. n., from Garhwal region in the Himalayan range of Uttar Pradesh, about 100 miles east of a collecting locality of H. warburtoni, is of considerable interest because it throws further light on distribution and on stepwise evolution within the genus Haemaphysalis. The following description is based on material collected by one of us (H.R.B.) during a field trip to areas adjoining Tibet in the Himalayan region of Uttar Pradesh, India. Haemaphysalis (Allophysalis) garhwalensis sp. n. The Garhwal Haemaphysalid (Figs. 1-12) Holotype Male, VRC No. A74807-1, from domestic sheep, Mana (altitude approximately 3,200 m), near Received for publication 16 April 1968. * The Virus Research Centre is jointly maintained by the Indian Council of Medical Research and The Rockefeller Foundation. The Centre also receives a grant (3x4307) of the PL 480 Funds from the NIH, USPHS, through the Indian Council of Medical Research. Badrinath, Chamoli District, Garhwal, Uttar Pradesh, India, 3 June 1967, H. R. Bhat. Deposited in the Virus Research Centre, Poona, tick collection.