Gymnosperms that are critical for coniferous forest health may be steadily declining in response to climate change
- July 18, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Gymnosperms that are critical for coniferous forest health may be steadily declining in response to climate change
Subject :Environment
Section: Biodiversity
Context:
- Gymnosperm species of cold, high-altitude northwestern Himalayas are predicted to decline as their habitats reduce in the light of climate change impacts.
Details:
- Slow-growing gymnosperms have a relatively long lifespan and have varied adaptability to environmental changes, which is currently under-studied.
- A study predicted a severe decline in several gymnosperm species, including the Himalayn fir (Abies pindrow), Himalayan silver fir (A. spectabilis), and Himalayan spruce (Picea smithiana).
- Experts suggest several conservation strategies, including biotechnological interventions, creation of seed banks and assessment of tree phenology patterns.
- A study finding revealed that under the projected future climate scenarios, all conifers except Pinus roxburghii are expected to show a steady decline in high potential areas (HPA) with the decline being most severe for Abies pindrow, A. spectabilis, and Picea smithiana in both near (2050) and distant (2070) futures.
Gymnosperms:
- Gymnosperms belong to kingdom ‘Plantae’ and sub-kingdom ‘Embryophyta’.
- Gymnosperms, unlike angiosperms, don’t bear flowers or fruits and produce seeds at the surface of scales or leaves, or at the end of stalks, forming a cone-like structure.
- The distribution of gymnosperms varies with altitude.
- They are well-adapted to cold environments and typically found in high-elevation forests.
- Gymnosperms tend to grow slower and generally live longer than angiosperms, thriving for hundreds of years.
- For example, the redwood tree (Sequoiadendron giganteum) conserved at Yarikhah Drug Farm (Tangmarg) in Kashmir is 150 years old.
- Out of 88 gymnosperm species found in the Indian Himalayan Region, 41 are found in northwestern Himalayas in Kashmir, with 20 occurring in the wild and 21 under cultivation.
- Elite gymnosperms are populations/collections/ accessions that are known to/bred to perform better under different climatic conditions, because of the inherent genetic variations that occur in populations.
Jammu and Kashmir region:
- Jammu and Kashmir has a total forest cover of 20,230 square kilometres.
- These forests are characterised by the presence of gymnosperm species such as Himalayan deodar (Cedrus deodara), blue pine (Pinus wallichiana), silver fir (Abies pindrow), spruce (Picea smithiana) and Himalayan yew (Taxus wallichiana).
Why are gymnosperms important?
- Angiosperms exhibit greater diversity compared to gymnosperm species worldwide as well as in the northwestern Himalayas.
- The most significant role of gymnosperms is carbon sequestration, as they contain significant biomass and help regulate the climate.
- Their deep root systems allow long-term storage of captured carbon in the ground, thus interrupting the carbon cycle.
- They act as effective wind-breakers, slowing down soil erosion and protecting watersheds.
- They are a rich source of diverse economic and medicinal products, providing innumerable products, including timber, fuel, gums, resins, medicines and many more useful products.
- The pine needles are used to make handicrafts and bio-briquettes which are a biofuel substitute to coal and charcoal.
- They also serve as ‘green mufflers’, reducing noise pollution.
- They emit Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) when there is unusually warm weather or heat. These compounds are involved in plant-to-plant communication as alarm signals. Thus, gymnosperm species play a crucial role in the overall functioning of the forest ecosystem.
Forest dieback:
- Forests often exhibit yellowed patches where a large number of trees have died, and this phenomenon is known as forest dieback.
- such dieback can be attributed to reduced precipitation, increased heating, diseases, and other related factors.
PhenoMet stations:
- The CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT), Palampur, in collaboration with the Space Application Centre (SAC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has set up a PhenoMet station to study the impact of climate change on pine forests in Himachal Pradesh.
- PhenoMet stations are being installed at 17 locations throughout the country, with eight having been installed so far under ISRO Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP).
- Forest phenology is one of the important indicators of climate change.
- Vegetation phenology is the timing of seasonal developmental stages in plant life cycles including bud burst, canopy growth, flowering, and senescence, which are closely coupled to seasonally varying weather patterns.
International Geosphere- Biosphere Programme (IGBP):
- The IGBP was a research programme that ran from 1987 to 2015 dedicated to studying the phenomenon of global change.
- Its primary focus was coordinating “international research on global-scale and regional-scale interactions between Earth’s biological, chemical and physical processes and their interactions with human systems.”
- The International Council of Scientific Unions, a coordinating body of national science organizations, launched IGBP.
- IGBP research was organised around six projects representing the Earth system – land, atmosphere, ocean and where they meet (land-atmosphere, land-ocean, atmosphere-ocean) and two further projects looking at the Earth system as a whole: Past Global Changes (PAGES), which looks at palaeoclimate, and the Analysis, Integration and Modelling of the Earth System (AIMES), which helps set the agenda for Earth system models, as well as four joint projects – carbon, water, human health and food security – with the other three international global-change programmes.