ISSN 2455–8575
Volume 3 – Issue 1
January – March 2016
J&K ENVIS NEWSLETTER State of Environment & its Related Issues in J&K
J&K ENVIS Centre Department of Ecology, Environment & Remote Sensing Jammu & Kashmir
Contents
Phenology: Nature’s Calendar Basics Did you see that… The Fever of our Earth: Phenology & Climate Change Get involved: Become a Volunteer Phenologist Fast Facts The Importance of Watching the Plants Grow Tree Ring Analysis: Science of Dendrochronology Events (January-March 2016)
TREE PHENOLOGY & CLIMATE CHANGE
From the Directors Desk Time of tree budburst and flowering is determined by day length, chilling requirement and heat formation in spring around Vasant Panchmi. Lower Shivaliks gets spring heat early leading to budburst in Mulberries, Sheeshams earlier than in trees like Dhak flame of the forest or Amaltas Golden shower. On mountains flowering in Viburnums & Prinsepias takes place early in comparison to Rhodos. However with early rise in spring temperature, Rhododendron (Burans, Chew) flowering has been preponed and flowers noticed in January-February instead of March–April. Trees are perennial woods, in remote areas of mountains old trees are useful archives to throw light on past climatic influences. Trees are prone to multiple climatic factors and limited stands at timber lines are better choice where one factor may be more pronounced say temperature. At lower timber lines, it may be precipitation. Tree rings are annual formations, favorable spring climate leads to wider ring formation whereas unfavorable stressed autumn leads to narrower ring formation. Tree ring width (TRW) is useful in climatic studies. Trees have circadian rhythms and if changes in phenology and anatomy recorded regularly at select locations, useful data can be generated to draw conclusions over time. Warmer winters are a matter of concern as chilling requirements of temperate fruit trees like apples, apricots gets compromised and if followed by early warming in spring chilling requirements delays flowering and early flowering gets reversed as noticed in China. Himalayan Rhododendron is more sensitive to climate change and early flowering reflects warming impact in Himalayas. Apple production is under stress due to disturbed chilling requirement and delayed completion of chilling requirement leads to lower fruit set. Emergence of pollinators if not synchronous to flowering, circadian rhythms gets disturbed. Volunteers can select flowering trees at select locations to record changes in phenology season to season and year to year so that the baseline date can be generated. Om Prakash Sharma, IFS Director DEE&RS, J&K
PHENOLOGY: Nature’s Calendar A keen observer will notice that the nature has a rhythm. The study of nature’s rhythm is called phenology. Phenology is the study of changes in plants and animals from year to year as they respond to weather, climate and the seasons. Or it is the timing of seasonal events such as bud break, germination and flowering time: well-known indicators of the arrival of spring. The study of phenology has occurred for centuries and has been practiced by people of all walks of life. For example, phenological clues to the onset of spring have been used by farmers to guide them in the selection of sowing dates that are likely to maximize crop production. Today, phenological patterns are used to track the effect of climate change on plants and animals, to anticipate wildflower displays (and allergies), to make predictions about fuel loads and wildfires, and to plan the best time to plant our gardens.
BASICS Plants respond to the seasonality of their environment through changes in their phenological characteristics. Such kind of plant activity is finely tuned with the climate of the region and shifts in its timing, provides one of the compelling evidence that species and ecosystems are being influenced by the global climate change. Worldwide, it has been observed that flowering of plants in spring is earlier than usual. This has also been supported by earlier spring green up of the land surface revealed in satellite images. Phenology is as old as humankind! In early times, being conscious of nature’s cyclical occurrences, such as when the almonds bloom and other similar food related events, was especially important for our immediate survival. Today, more and more of us are
becoming interested in phenology simply as a fun and educational way to enjoy the natural world. But deep inside the web of life, phenological patterns is actually the manifestation of the outcomes of all the processes of all the spheres of Earth. Tree phenology has shifted in recent years and has been evidenced by the changes seen in the timing of bud bursting, flowering, fruiting, leaf-out, or senescence. Moreover, there are many other indirect indices that researchers use to assess this phenomenon such as, degree days, number of frost-free days, calculations of Spring Indices, as well as the day length. Further, satellite remote-sensing of ecosystem production and atmospheric monitoring of carbon dioxide concentrations that serves as an indication of the timing of carbon uptake through photosynthesis are also used to understand the shifting of tree phenology. Globally, the influence of increasing temperature, shifting precipitation, rising CO2 concentrations and other aspects of global change has been correlated with the timing of species and ecosystem level phenology.
Temperature influences the development timing of plants and hence global climate change has been associated with significant alteration of the plant phenological patterns. Climate warming has been found consistent with the various indices that indicate changes in the plant phenological patterns such as frost dates, growing season length and growing degree totals and various other complex indices. Such phenoclimatic measures represent changes in temperature that are relevant for different phases of plant development. The Spring Indices (SI), a suite of such phenoclimatic measures, found that first leaf dates and last frost dates were 1.2 days and 1.5 per decade earlier, respectively, for Northern Hemisphere temperate land areas from1955 to 2002. This acceleration of spring has led to a longer growing season, predominantly via warming of the coldest days in late winter and early spring as opposed to consistent warming throughout the year. These phenoclimatic measures have important applications for agriculture, as well as for parameterizing leaf phenology in various global climate models.
Source: acpermaculture.wordpress.com
DID YOU SEE THAT… Each spring around April we await the almond bloom across the state of Jammu and Kashmir that indicates the onset of spring. It is a phenological event. Around this time, Tulips in the famous Tulip garden in Kashmir are coming into bloom, just in time for the arrival of the nectar-hungry species such as hummers and the honey bees. Later on in mid-May, the various pollinators will appear in time for the fertilization of various crops such
as fruits etc. Phenologists keep track of cyclical natural events like these from year to year. Their records would typically include dates of: Spring and fall migrations of bird and mammal species Growth stages of various animal and plant species Bird and mammal breeding activities Denning and emergence of hibernating animals Butterflies, mosquitoes and other insects emergence Plant bud, bloom and fruiting Peak fall foliage and leaf drop
THE FEVER OF OUR EARTH: Phenology & Climate Change Changes in the timing of phenological events—such as flowering, migrations, and breeding—have been called a ‘globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts’ on plants and animals. Climate-induced changes in phenology have been linked to shifts in the timing of allergy seasons and cultural festivals, increases in wildfire activity and pest outbreaks, shifts in species distributions, declines in the abundance of native species, the spread of invasive species, and changes in carbon cycling in forests. The breadth of these impacts highlights the potential for phenological data and related information to inform management and policy decisions across sectors. For example, phenology data at multiple spatial and temporal scales are currently being used to identify species vulnerable to climate change, to generate computer models of carbon sequestration, to manage invasive species, to facilitate the planning of seasonal cultural activities. Phenology is widely accepted as a robust ecological indicator of the impacts of environmental variation and climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem processes across scales from individuals to landscapes. Depending on the application, phenology can be used as an indicator of species sensitivity to climate change, or can be combined with climatological data as an integrated indicator of climate change. Species as indicators of climate change: Phenology is one of the most sensitive biological responses to environmental variation, which
is important because changes in phenology serve as both forcing and constraint on ecological processes. Phenological datasets have been critical to documenting impacts of climate change on biological systems at both global and national scales. However, phenological datasets for the J&K are negligible. Accordingly, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) USA recently designated two phenology derived variables as climate change indicators: length of the growing season and leaf and bloom dates. Large-scale integrative phenological indices such as the Spring Index, derived from minimum and maximum daily temperatures enable us to leverage existing data into indices of climate change impacts across a variety of scales. Additional research is required to better understand mechanistic connections between climate indices (e.g., growing degree days) and organismal phenology. Therefore, it will be critical to develop a national observing platform for organismal phenology that explicitly incorporates considerations of scale and climate-informed monitoring. Spring is arriving earlier and fall is staying on later, so that winter is being shortened at both ends and is increasingly frost-free. This is producing a noticeable effect on natural ecosystems. For example, almond trees in particular and other general trees and plant of J&K are budding and flowering sooner, and insects and migrant birds are being seen earlier than in previous years.
GET INVOLVED: Become a Volunteer Phenologist Tracking nature over the seasons is an enjoyable way for you to develop naturalist skills and to cultivate a sense of place in the natural world. If you keep accurate and consistent records for a number of years, these can become valuable information for assessing how climate change is affecting our agricultural crops and other wildlife habitats. If you are concerned about climate change, you can make a meaningful contribution by participating in various phenology-based programs. For example, by reporting certain plant species found in your community on www.jkenvis.nic.in you can help our researchers discover how common plants are responding to climate change. Keeping your own phenological records can be as straightforward as
maintaining a notebook to list a few of your favourite seasonal highlights, or as involved as using computer software to track a whole range of periodic natural events. In any case, you will need to observe the species you are tracking closely and frequently, and learn their basic lifecycles.
FAST FACTS • The word phenology comes from the Greek word phaino, “to show or appear”, and logy, “to study”. • The first written phenological records are Chinese, dating back to 974 B.C. Japanese records for the peak cherry bloom date back 1,200 years. • Phenology records in some parts of the world such as Edmonton, Alberta, show that spring plants are blooming an average of 10 days sooner than they did 45 years ago. Similar phenomenon has also been observed in Kashmir region as well. • Spring moves north, west, and uphill at predictable rates: 15 miles north/day, one degree of longitude west/day, 30 meters uphill/day
THE IMPORTANCE OF WATCHING THE PLANTS GROW Plants are incredible indicators of climate variability. For example, you may have read recently that scientists were able to reconstruct the last 1200 years of drought in California from carefully measuring tree rings! The Phenology volunteer program coordinated at Department of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing, Government of Jammu and Kashmir is part of National Project on Climate Change under the aegis of NMSHE. You as a volunteer shall measure how the life cycles of plants are changing as a result of our shifting weather patterns. Plant phenology observers shall capture shifts in the timing of specific phases of plant life, from seed to sprout to senescence. Observations include whether the
plant shows signs of new leaf or branch growth, emerging or fading flowers, or evidence of having gone to seed. By carefully tracking these subtle changes over time and sharing them in a national database, we can learn how the plants around us are adapting to factors like this year’s drought and to warmer winter temperatures. Will plants continue to make flowers and fruits earlier each spring? Will they put out more seeds as a survival strategy? How will this affect the phenology of other living things like the insects, birds and critters that rely on plants for food? These are the kinds of questions the ENVIS data base will help answer.
TREE RING ANALYSIS: SCIENCE OF DENDROCHRONOLOGY One way scientists are learning about past climate is by studying tree rings. This field of research is known as dendrochronology. Scientists can use tree rings to measure the age of a tree and learn more about the local climatic conditions the tree experienced during its lifetime. Tree ring patterns provide information about precipitation and other conditions during the time the tree was alive. Scientists can learn even more about precipitation and temperature patterns by studying certain chemicals in the wood. Modern trees can be interesting to compare with local measurements (for example, temperature and precipitation measurements from the
nearest weather station). Very old trees can be even more interesting because they offer clues about what the climate was like before measurements were recorded. In most places, daily weather records have only been kept for the last 100 to 150 years. Thus, to learn about the climate hundreds to thousands of years ago, scientists need to use other sources such as trees, corals, and ice cores (layers of ice drilled out of a glacier or ice sheet—mostly in Greenland and Antarctica). Tree rings alone cannot tell us whether human activities are responsible, but they do help by revealing patterns that scientists can investigate further.
EVENT DAIRY: January-March 2016 Jhanki Display at Republic Day Parade, 26th January, 2016, Jammu Tableau of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing Department was the part of Republic Day parade in Jammu and Kashmir first time. In order to make the mass aware of the threat being posed by climate change to environment and all the living organism, the team of J&K Climate Change Centre, conceptualized a tableau of the department which was included in the Republic Day parade for the first time. The tableau showcased plants, animals and the entire mother Earth pleading the humans to save them. The message was given to adopt traditional lifestyle of all the three regions, which is eco-friendly. People were encouraged to use utensils of clay and willow wood buckets in place of plastic items and Kangri instead of heaters and blowers. In the same way emphasis was laid on clean and renewable sources of energy like solar and wind instead of hydro and thermal power. Replica of remote sensing equipment was also shown. Wetland Day, 4th February, 2016, Surinsar, Jammu To mark the signing of Ramsar convention on wetlands Razak, Chairman, J&K PCB, appealed the students on February 2, 1971 and highlight ecological values of and members of civil society to discourage use of lakes and wetlands, Department of Ecology, plastics, fertilizers, agrochemicals around wetlands, Environment & Remote Sensing (DEERS) in ponds and other drinking water resources. Experts collaboration with Government Gandhi Memorial focused on significance of wetlands as waterfowl habitat Science College organized Environmental Awareness and pollution of water bodies led to harmful bioprogramme at Surinsar (Ramsar Site). More than 100 magnification along food chain ultimately affecting the students, forest and wildlife officers as well as media human health. ENVIS Newsletters “Climate Change persons participated in the programme to highlight the Concerns of J&K and Soils of Jammu and Kashmir” theme – Wetlands our future and sustainable were are released on the occasion. livelihoods. The chief guest of the function, Abdul
Paryavaran Excursion, 6th February, 2016 Department of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing, J&K, Department of Botany, University of Jammu and J&K ENVIS Centre jointly organised first ever Ecological Excursion with birding session, avian
interpretation and natural heritage quiz at Raika, Environment Park. The chief guest of the event Sh. R. K. Gupta, IAS, Principal Secretary, Forest, Environment and Ecology presided over the function.
Spring Festival, 12th February, 2016 A workshop on “Tree Phenology & Climate Change” was organized by J & K Climate Change Center, Department of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing on Friday, 12th February 2016 at 09:00 A.M onwards at Environmental Park Raika, Jammu. The programme was organized to celebrate the onset of spring, change of tree phenology and its response to current climate change. The Chief Guest of the Programme was Dr. Pawan Kotwal, IAS Divisional Commissioner, Jammu along with him many other
higher officials of the state Govt. Departments attended the programme. However the main invites of the programme were students from Schools, Colleges and Universities. The Programme started with praise of onset of Spring (Vasant Panchimi). Many Lectures were delivered by professionals related to the scientific aspects of tree phenology and climate change. The J&K Climate Change Centre also displayed number of big hoardings depicting tree growth characteristics, Tree phenology and impact of Climate change on it.
Wild Flower Festival, 5th March, 2016 The first ever Forest Flower Festival (FFF-2016) was organized today jointly by the Department of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing, JK Govt. and the Department of Botany, University of Jammu in the blooming environs of Botanical Garden of the University of Jammu. This unique initiative was undertaken to spread environmental awareness, exploring and understanding the wild floral diversity of the state, to extract and share traditional knowledge, value additions to known medicinal and herbal flowers to generate employment opportunities by way of wild floral innovations and more importantly to understand
the role of wild flowers in our daily life. Expressing his pleasure over the organization of the Innovative and Unique Forest flower Festival Botanical garden of the University, Sh. R.K. Gupta, IAS Principal Secretary Forest Department highlighted the importance of forest floral wealth and its potential in ensuring the human needs and food security. He appreciated the overwhelming participation of the various central and state government institutions, university and colleges and schools in the mega floral event and hoped they would be benefited from such exchange of knowledge related to the forest bio-resources of the state.
Van Paryavaran Mela, 19th Mar 2016 One day Van Paryavaran Mela (Forest Environment Fair) was organized at Environmental Park Raika Jammu to spread awareness on forest habitats, conservation of forest resources, value addition to edible and medicinal forest products, display of ecofriendly products, practices and processes. Over 12 organizations, departments and voluntary art & artisan groups showcased eco-friendly products in the innovative stalls put up by Departments namely Forest, Environment, Floriculture, Tourism, Handicrafts, Botany, Environmental Sciences, GDC Udhampur
and others. Advisor to Governor Khurshid A Ganai was the chief guest, he took round of the various stalls and interacted with innovators, university & college scholars and Govt. department functionaries to get a feel of native eco-friendly products, practices and processes. He planted Rudraksh sapling and distributed certificates of participation to acknowledge innovative work of the contributors. He advocated idea of creating strong interface with student community and have brigade of eco-warriors in the state.
Why Should We Study Phenology? A Quick Visit The study of phenology lets us predict when pollen counts will be high. Allergy season starts when certain flowers bloom. Changes in the climate influence when these flowers bloom and therefore affects the length of the season for allergy sufferers Phenological patterns help farmers know when to plant crops. As climate patterns change, this date will also change. Phenology patterns tell us when we can expect to see Hanguls at different locations. Sighting festivals and events are planned around traditional phenological dates. Selected References: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Jeffree, E.P. (1960). "Some long-term means from the Phenological reports (1891–1948) of the Royal Meteorological Society". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 86 (367): 95–103. Bibcode:1960QJRMS..86...95J.doi:10.1002/qj.49708636710. BBC - Science & Nature - UK Wildlife - Springwatch survey "European Phenology Network". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2007-12-22. Retrieved 2010-05-25. "Climate Watch". EarthWatch Institute Australia. Retrieved 28 August 2013
Director Om Prakash Sharma, IFS ENVIS Coordinator Majid Farooq Team 1. Gowhar Meraj (Programme Officer) 2. Amreena Yousuf (Information Officer) 3. Gurmeet Singh (IT-Assistant) Address Bemina, S.D.A. Housing Colony, Srinagar - 190018 (Summer) Paryavaran Complex, Gladeni Narwal, Jammu - 180006 (Winter) Visit us as : www.jkenvis.nic.in
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