BACKGROUND Studying diversity and distribution patterns of species along elevational gradients and understanding drivers behind these patterns is central to macroecology and conservation biology. A number of studies on biogeographic gradients are available for terrestrial ecosystems, but freshwater ecosystems remain largely neglected. In particular, we know very little about the species richnes...

This study represents distribution of Arsenic in two different estuaries, one is Himalayan source and another is non-Himalayan source. Arsenic concentration in river water, pore water and ground water was found to be significantly higher in the Mahanadi estuary could be due to fringing mangrove than that of Hooghly-Saptamukhi estuary with thick mangrove ecosystem. Spatial variation of Arsenic i...

Two Himalayan ice cores display a factor-two decreasing trend of air content over the past two millennia, in contrast to the relatively stable values in Greenland and Antarctica ice cores over the same period. Because the air content can be related with the relative frequency and intensity of melt phenomena, its variations along the Himalayan ice cores provide an indication of summer temperatur...

The present paper deals with variability in snow chemistry of various sites spread in six districts of the Kashmir Himalayan valley, experiencing frequent snow fall during winter ( Dec.Feb). Chemical composition of fresh snow samples shows wide changes in pH (5.8–7.3), dissolved oxygen content (22-26 mg L-1), and total alkalinity (2-3 mg L-1). The levels ( mg L-1) of calcium (13.3– 28 ), magnes...

The meiotic chromosomes of 10 species (Pohlia elongata, Anomobryum cymbifolium, Brachymenium acuminatum, B. ochianum, B. sikkimense, Bryum cellulare, B. pseudotriquetrum, B. apiculatum, B. capillare and B. atrovirense), in four genera of the family Bryaceae of acrocarpous mosses are studied with special emphasis on their evolution, polyploidy and cytological features with reference to interrela...

The linkages between the space-time variability of observed clouds, rainfall, large-circulation patterns and topography in northern India and the Himalayas were investigated using remote sensing data. The research purpose was to test the hypothesis that cloudiness patterns are dynamic tracers of rainstorms, and therefore their temporal and spatial evolution can be used as a proxy of the spatial...

Article history: The Himalayan orogenic bel Received 27 September 2007 Received in revised form 14 April 2008 Accepted 16 April 2008 Available online 3 May 2008

The geomorphic character of major river drainages in the Himalayan foothills of central Nepal suggests the existence of a discrete, west-northwest–trending break in rock uplift rates that does not correspond to previously mapped faults. The 40Ar/39Ar thermochronologic data from detrital muscovites with provenance from both sides of the discontinuity indicate that this geomorphic break also corr...