Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Understanding the impact of future climatic scenarios upon key environmental factors that determine piscine assemblage of a torrential upland river of Eastern Himalayas, India


Affiliations
1 Aquatic Bio Resource Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700 019, India
 

Small-scale freshwater reaches would be affected prior to changing climatic scenarios in the coming days. This study aims to build a profile of climate-change impact for the key environmental factors related to the fish assemblage of a small-scale upland river (Murti) in the Eastern Himalayas, India. In the coming future, climate change will lead to increased water current, acidity, pH, riparian quality and NDVI for this freshwater reach. At the same time, decreasing trend of shelter availability and substrate coarseness are projected from the same. River width seems to be less affected, but the whole watershed will experience loss of spatial heterogeneity with regard to these factors.

Keywords

Climate change, Eastern Himalayas, torrential river, piscine assemblage, environmental factors.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Parmesan, C. and Yohe, G., A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems. Nature, 2003, 421(6918), 37.

  • Walther, G.-R. et al., Ecological responses to recent climate change. Nature, 2002, 416(6879), 389.

  • Crowley, T. J., The geologic record of climatic change. Rev. Geophys., 1983, 21(4), 828–877.

  • Firth, P. and Fisher, S. G., Global Climate Change and Freshwater Ecosystems, Springer Science & Business Media, New York, 2012.

  • Griggs, D. J. and Noguer, M., Climate change 2001: the scientific basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Weather, 2002, 57(8), 267–269.

  • Pielke, R. A., Land use and climate change. Science, 2005, 310(5754), 1625–1626.

  • Jones, C. et al., Committed terrestrial ecosystem changes due to climate change. Nature Geosci., 2009, 2(7), 484.

  • Russell, J. M. et al., Human impacts, climate change, and aquatic ecosystem response during the past 2000 yr at Lake Wandakara, Uganda. Quaternary Res., 2009, 72(3), 315–324.

  • Levêque, C. et al., Global diversity of fish (Pisces) in freshwater. Hydrobiologia, 2008, 595, 545–567.

  • Durance, I. and Ormerod, S., Trends in water quality and discharge confound long‐term warming effects on river macroinvertebrates. Freshwater Biol., 2009, 54(2), 388–405.

  • Durance, I. and Ormerod, S. J., Climate change effects on upland stream macroinvertebrates over a 25‐year period. Global Change Biol., 2007, 13(5), 942–957.

  • Daufresne, M. et al., Long‐term changes within the invertebrate and fish communities of the Upper Rhône River: effects of climatic factors. Global Change Biol., 2004, 10(1), 124–140.

  • Ormerod, S. J., Current issues with fish and fisheries: editor’s overview and introduction. J. Appl. Ecol., 2003, 40(2), 204–213.

  • Heath, M. R., Changes in the structure and function of the North Sea fish foodweb, 1973–2000, and the impacts of fishing and climate. ICES J. Mar. Sci., 2005, 62(5), 847–868.

  • Ottersen, G., Stenseth, N. C. and Hurrell, J. W., Climatic fluctuations and marine systems: a general introduction to the ecological effects. Mar. Ecosyst. Climate Variation, 2004, 3–14.

  • Allen, D. J., The Status and Distribution of Freshwater Biodiversity in the Eastern Himalaya, IUCN, Cambridge, UK and Gland, Switzerland, India, 2010.

  • Xu, J. et al., The melting Himalayas: cascading effects of climate change on water, biodiversity, and livelihoods. Conserv. Biol., 2009, 23(3), 520–530.

  • Tse-ring, K. et al., Climate change vulnerability of mountain ecosystems in the Eastern Himalayas. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), 2010.

  • Pachauri, R. K. et al., Climate change 2014: synthesis report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. IPCC, 2014.

  • Sharma, E., Chettri, N., Tse-ring, K., Shrestha, A. B., Jing, F., Mool, P. and Eriksson, M., Climate change impacts and vulnerability in the Eastern Himalayas. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), 2009.

  • Bhatt, J. P., Manish, K. and Pandit, M. K., Elevational gradients in fish diversity in the Himalaya: water discharge is the key driver of distribution patterns. PLoS ONE, 2012, 7(9), e46237.

  • Goswami, U. C. et al., Fish diversity of North East India, inclusive of the Himalayan and Indo Burma biodiversity hotspots zones: a checklist on their taxonomic status, economic importance, geographical distribution, present status and prevailing threats. Int. J. Biodiver. Conserv., 2012, 4(15), 592–613.

  • Panja, S., Podder, A. and Homechaudhuri, S., Evaluation of aquatic ecological systems through dynamics of ichthyofaunal diversity in a Himalayan torrential river, Murti. Limnologica, 2020, 82.

  • Smith, S. et al., River nutrient loads and catchment size. Biogeochemistry, 2005, 75(1), 83–107.

  • Hijmans, R. J. et al., Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. Int. J. Climatol., 2005, 25(15), 1965–1978.

  • Rajbhandari, R. et al., Extreme climate projections over the transboundary Koshi River Basin using a high resolution regional climate model. Adv. Climate Change Res., 2017, 8(3), 199–211.

  • Riahi, K. et al., RCP 8.5 – a scenario of comparatively high greenhouse gas emissions. Climatic Change, 2011, 109(1–2), 33.

  • Thomson, A. M. et al., RCP4. 5: a pathway for stabilization of radiative forcing by 2100. Climatic Change, 2011, 109(1–2), 77.

  • Bohlin, T. et al., Electrofishing – theory and practice with special emphasis on salmonids. Hydrobiologia, 1989, 173(1), 9–43.

  • Talwar, P. and Jhingran, A., Inland Fishes of India and Adjacent Countries, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co, New Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, 1991.

  • Froese, R. and Pauly, D., FishBase, Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Van Cauvea, Candey, 2010.

  • Clarke, K. and Gorley, R., PRIMER v6: User Manual PRIMER-E, Plymouth, UK, 2006.

  • Team, R.C., R: A language and environment for statistical computing, available online at R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria, 2018; https://www.Rproject.org/

  • Torondel, B. et al., Assessment of the influence of intrinsic environmental and geographical factors on the bacterial ecology of pit latrines. Microbial. Biotechnol., 2016, 9(2), 209–223.

  • Elith, J., Leathwick, J. R. and Hastie, T., A working guide to boosted regression trees. J. Anim. Ecol., 2008, 77(4), 802–813.

  • IUCN. The IUCN red list of threatened species. Version 2020-1.

  • Arnell, N. W. et al., The implications of climate change for the water environment in England. Prog. Phys. Geogr., 2015, 39(1), 93–120.

  • Graham, C. and Harrod, C., Implications of climate change for the fishes of the British Isles. J. Fish Biol., 2009, 74(6), 1143–1205.

  • Weijters, M. J. et al., Quantifying the effect of catchment land use and water nutrient concentrations on freshwater river and stream biodiversity. Aquat. Conserv.: Mar. Freshwater Ecosyst., 2009, 19(1), 104–112.

  • Wiens, J. A., Riverine landscapes: taking landscape ecology into the water. Freshw. Biol., 2002, 47(4), 501–515.

  • Chakrabarty, M. and Homechaudhuri, S., Fish guild structure along a longitudinally-determined ecological zonation of Teesta, an eastern Himalayan river in West Bengal, India. Arx. Misc.·Zool., 2013, 11, 196–213.

  • Brazner, J. C. et al., Regional, watershed, and site-specific environmental influences on fish assemblage structure and function in western Lake Superior tributaries. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., 2005, 62(6), 1254–1270.

  • Heino, J., Concordance of species richness patterns among multiple freshwater taxa: a regional perspective. Biodiver. Conserv., 2002, 11(1), 137–147.

  • Buisson, L., Blanc, L. and Grenouillet, G., Modelling stream fish species distribution in a river network: the relative effects of temperature versus physical factors. Ecol. Freshw. Fish, 2008, 17(2), 244–257.

  • Heggenes, J. et al., Homeostatic behavioural responses in a changing environment: brown trout (Salmo trutta) become nocturnal during winter. J. Anim. Ecol., 1993, 62, 295–308.

  • Gosain, A. K., Shrestha, A. B. and Rao, S., Modelling climate change impact on the hydrology of the Eastern Himalayas. ICIMOD, Nepal, 2010.

  • Lake, P. S., Disturbance, patchiness, and diversity in streams. J. North Am. Benthol. Soc., 2000, 19(4), 573–592.

  • Ichii, K., Kawabata, A. and Yamaguchi, Y., Global correlation analysis for NDVI and climatic variables and NDVI trends: 1982– 1990. Int. J. Remote Sensing, 2002, 23(18), 3873–3878.

  • Wang, J., Price, K. and Rich, P., Spatial patterns of NDVI in response to precipitation and temperature in the central Great Plains. Int. J. Remote Sensing, 2001, 22(18), 3827–3844.

  • Fu, B. and Burgher, I., Riparian vegetation, NDVI dynamics and its relationship with climate, surface water and groundwater. J. Arid Environ., 2015, 113, 59–68.

  • Griffith, J. A. et al., Interrelationships among landscapes, NDVI, and stream water quality in the US Central Plains. Ecol. Appl., 2002, 12(6), 1702–1718.

  • Phillips, L. B., Hansen, A. J. and Flather, C. H., Evaluating the species energy relationship with the newest measures of ecosystem energy: NDVI versus MODIS primary production. Remote Sensing Environ., 2008, 112(9), 3538–3549.

  • Hauer, F. R. and Lamberti, G., Methods in Stream Ecology, Academic Press, China, 2011.

  • Rudra, K., Rivers of the Tarai–Doors and Barind Tract. In Rivers of the Ganga–Brahmaputra–Meghna Delta. Geography of the Physical Environment, Springer, Cham, Switzerland, 2018, pp. 27–47.

  • Nogués-Bravo, D. et al., Exposure of global mountain systems to climate warming during the 21st Century. Global Environ. Change, 2007, 17(3–4), 420–428.

  • Su, F. et al., Hydrological response to future climate changes for the major upstream river basins in the Tibetan Plateau. Global Planet. Change, 2016, 136, 82–95.

  • Harper, M. P. and Peckarsky, B. L., Emergence cues of a mayfly in a high‐altitude stream ecosystem: potential response to climate change. Ecol. Appl., 2006, 16(2), 612–621.

  • Hindar, A. and Wright, R. F., Long-term records and modelling of acidification, recovery, and liming at Lake Hovvatn, Norway. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., 2005, 62(11), 2620–2631.

  • Colwell, S., The application of the qbr index to the riparian forests of central Ohio streams. The Ohio State University, 2007.

  • Hermoso, V., Linke, S. and Prenda, J., Identifying priority sites for the conservation of freshwater fish biodiversity in a Mediterranean basin with a high degree of threatened endemics. Hydrobiologia, 2009, 623, 127–140.

  • Beisiegel, B. D. M., Shelter availability and use by mammals and birds in an Atlantic forest area. Biota Neotropica, 2006, 6.


Abstract Views: 446

PDF Views: 129




  • Understanding the impact of future climatic scenarios upon key environmental factors that determine piscine assemblage of a torrential upland river of Eastern Himalayas, India

Abstract Views: 446  |  PDF Views: 129

Authors

Soumyadip Panja
Aquatic Bio Resource Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700 019, India
Anupam Podder
Aquatic Bio Resource Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700 019, India
Sumit Homechaudhuri
Aquatic Bio Resource Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700 019, India

Abstract


Small-scale freshwater reaches would be affected prior to changing climatic scenarios in the coming days. This study aims to build a profile of climate-change impact for the key environmental factors related to the fish assemblage of a small-scale upland river (Murti) in the Eastern Himalayas, India. In the coming future, climate change will lead to increased water current, acidity, pH, riparian quality and NDVI for this freshwater reach. At the same time, decreasing trend of shelter availability and substrate coarseness are projected from the same. River width seems to be less affected, but the whole watershed will experience loss of spatial heterogeneity with regard to these factors.

Keywords


Climate change, Eastern Himalayas, torrential river, piscine assemblage, environmental factors.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv120%2Fi9%2F1471-1481