•Trend and drivers of LULC change using remote sensing and Indicator based approach.•Variability in Climate and Economic benefits acted as drivers of LULC change.•LULC changes were linked to major ...driving factors using DSPIR model.•Decreasing agriculture area posing a serious threat to regional food security.•Robust land use planning is needed for sustainable development of region.
One of the most dominant forces responsible for changing the global landscape cover includes the changes in Land Use and Land Cover (LULC). These changes are initiated by a string of forces that are interconnected with each other. This study has been done to focus primarily on various LULC changes that have occurred in the Southern part of Kashmir Himalaya and at the same time study the factors governing these. A 27-year period of study has been selected from 1990 to 2017, the main focus being to characterize these forces and link them with the statistics obtained from remotely sensed data. The cause and effect relationship between various indicators of land use change were analyzed using Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) assessment framework. This framework was applied to have a comprehensive view of interactions between human society and the environment. The goal has been achieved by using satellite based data, questionnaire based survey and an in depth analysis of data obtained from various secondary sources. The study finds out the major land use changes occur in a few selected classes, with cropland agriculture losing the most (−5%) whereas economically fruitful horticulture gaining the most (+4.29%) during the study period. The LULC changes have been driven by various forces ranging from natural, demographic and economic resulting in pressures on land and having various environmental ramifications and ultimately focus on responses. Strict land use planning needs to be implemented in Kashmir Himalayas to ensure ecologically fragile environment’s food security and sustainability. A much more in depth study of human environment interactions and complex relationships will be needed to understand these complex systems.
Climate change has emerged as an important issue ever to confront mankind. This concern emerges from the fact that our day-to-day activities are leading to impacts on the Earth’s atmosphere that has ...the potential to significantly alter the planet’s shield and radiation balance. Developing countries particularly whose income is particularly derived from agricultural activities are at the forefront of bearing repercussions due to changing climate. The present study is an effort to analyze the changing trends of precipitation and temperature variables in Kashmir valley along different elevation zones in the north western part of India. As the Kashmir valley has a rich repository of glaciers with its annual share of precipitation, slight change in the temperature and precipitation regime has far reaching environmental and economic consequences. The results from Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) data of the period 1980–2014 reveals that the annual mean temperature of Kashmir valley has increased significantly. Accelerated warming has been observed during 1980–2014, with intense warming in the recent years (2001–2014). During the period 1980–2014, steeper increase, in annual mean maximum temperature than annual mean minimum temperature, has been observed. In addition, mean maximum temperature in plain regions has shown higher rate of increase when compared with mountainous areas. In case of mean minimum temperature, mountainous regions have shown higher rate of increase. Analysis of precipitation data for the same period shows a decreasing trend with mountainous regions having the highest rate of decrease which can be quite hazardous for the fragile mountain environment of the Kashmir valley housing a large number of glaciers.
Selenium (Se) has been proven to be an essential trace element for organism. Se deficiency in poultry can cause widespread damage, such as exudative diathesis. The liver is not only the main organ of ...metabolism, but also one of the organs with high Se content in organism. Recent studies have shown that solute carrier family 7 member 11 (SLC7A11) plays a key role in the negative regulation of ferroptosis. In order to explore the mechanism of Se deficiency induces liver ferroptosis in broilers, and the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in this process, we divided broilers into 2 groups: control group (0.2 mg/kg Se) and Se deficiency group (0.03 mg/kg Se). Hematoxylin-Eosin staining detected liver tissue damage in broilers. Predicted and verified the targeting relationship between miR-129-3p and SLC7A11 through miRDB and dual luciferase report experiments. The genes related to ferroptosis were detected by qRT-PCR and Western Blot. The results showed that the expression level of miR-129-3p mRNA in Se-deficient liver was significantly increased. To understand whether the miR-129-3p/SLC7A11 axis could involve in the process of ferroptosis, our further research showed that overexpression of miR-129-3p could reduce the expression of SLC7A11 and its downstream GCL, GSS, and GPX4, thereby inducing ferroptosis. These data indicates that miR-129-3p affected ferroptosis under Se deficiency conditions through the SLC7A11 pathway. Our research provides a new perspective for the mechanism of Se deficiency on the liver damage.
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Climate warming-induced glacier recession has resulted in the development and rapid expansion of glacial lakes in the Himalayan region. The increased melting has enhanced the susceptibility for ...Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in the region. The catastrophic failure of potentially dangerous glacial lakes could be detrimental to human life and infrastructure in the adjacent low-lying areas. This study attempts to assess the GLOF hazard of Gangabal lake, located in the Upper Jhelum basin of Kashmir Himalaya, using the combined approaches of remote sensing, GIS, and dam break modeling. The parameters, such as area change, ice thickness, mass balance, and surface velocity of the Harmukh glacier, which feeds Gangabal lake, were also assessed using multitemporal satellite data, GlabTop-2, and the Cosi–Corr model. In the worst-case scenario, 100% volume (73 × 106 m3) of water was considered to be released from the lake with a breach formation time (bf) of 40 min, breach width (bw) of 60 m, and producing peak discharge of 16,601.03 m3/s. Our results reveal that the lake area has increased from 1.42 km2 in 1972 to 1.46 km2 in 1981, 1.58 km2 in 1992, 1.61 km2 in 2001, 1.64 km2 in 2010, and 1.66 km2 in 2020. The lake area experienced 17 ± 2% growth from 1972 to 2020 at an annual rate of 0.005 km2. The feeding glacier (Harmukh) contrarily indicated a significant area loss of 0.7 ± 0.03 km2 from 1990 (3.36 km2) to 2020 (2.9 km2). The glacier has a maximum, minimum, and average depth of 85, 7.3, and 23.46 m, respectively. In contrast, the average velocity was estimated to be 3.2 m/yr with a maximum of 7 m/yr. The results obtained from DEM differencing show an average ice thickness loss of 11.04 ± 4.8 m for Harmukh glacier at the rate of 0.92 ± 0.40 m/yr between 2000 and 2012. Assessment of GLOF propagation in the worst-case scenario (scenario-1) revealed that the maximum flood depth varies between 3.87 and 68 m, the maximum flow velocity between 4 and 75 m/s, and the maximum water surface elevation varies between 1548 and 3536 m. The resultant flood wave in the worst-case scenario will reach the nearest location (Naranaag temple) within 90 min after breach initiation with a maximum discharge of 12,896.52 m3 s−1 and maximum flood depth and velocity of 10.54 m and 10.05 m/s, respectively. After evaluation of GLOF impacts on surrounding areas, the area under each inundated landuse class was estimated through the LULC map generated for both scenarios 1 and 2. In scenario 1, the total potentially inundated area was estimated as 5.3 km2, which is somewhat larger than 3.46 km2 in scenario 2. We suggest a location-specific comprehensive investigation of Gangbal lake and Harmukh glacier by applying the advanced hazard and risk assessment models/methods for better predicting a probable future GLOF event.
Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element that has several functions in cellular processes related to cancer prevention. While the cancericidal effect of Se has been reported in liver cancer, the ...mechanism has not been clarified. MiR-29a has widely been reported as a tumor suppressor; however, it also acts as a carcinogenic agent by increasing cell invasion in human epithelial cancer cells and hepatoma cells. In a previous study, we found that miR-29a-3p is a Se-sensitive miRNA. However, its effect in the chicken hepatocellular carcinoma cell line (LMH) is still unknown. In the present study, we found that the expression of miR-29a-3p in LMH cells was decreased by Se supplementation and increased under Se-deficient conditions. Flow cytometry and CCK-8 results suggested that Se decreased LMH cell proliferation induced by miR-29a-3p overexpression. Transwell and gap-closure assays implied that Se mediated LMH cell invasion and migration by downregulating miR-29a-3p. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting results suggested that Se mitigated miR-29a-3p overexpression-induced LMH cell proliferation by downregulating CDK2, cyclin-D1, CDK6, and cyclin-E1. We further demonstrated that collagen type IV alpha 2 (COL4A2) is a target gene of miR-29a-3p. COL4A2 activates the RhoA/ROCK pathway to promote LMH cell invasion and migration. In conclusion, Se mediated miR-29a-3p overexpression induced LMH cell invasion and migration by targeting COL4A2 to inactivate the RhoA/ROCK pathway.
Climate change over mountainous basins necessitates thorough understanding of present and future temperature and precipitation regimes for better water resource management, cryospheric resources, ...hydropower generation, natural hazard risk assessment, and ecosystem response. Global and regional climate models (GCMs/RCMs) do not represent valley/ridge scale interactions well. There are inherent model biases due to coarser reorientation of model forcings. The present study is an attempt to use the statistical downscaling model (SDSM) to calibrate and validate Canadian Earth System Model (CanESM2) outputs. The outputs have been compared with corresponding in situ observations available at six meteorological stations within the Kashmir basin in western Himalayas. Daily temperatures and precipitation records during present and future time slices have been considered. The three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) were divided into three future time slices of 2030s, 2060s, and 2090s. Downscaled climate data reveals increase of the mean maximum temperature in the range of 0.3–2.3 °C and the mean minimum temperature increase from 0.3–1.9 °C under different RCPs when compared with the baseline period of 1980–2010. An increasing trend from 2 to 17% at different meteorological stations under different RCPs has been observed in precipitation. Seasonally, autumn shows the highest variability both in temperature and precipitation followed by spring.
Se is an important bioelement essential for a healthy immune system. Dietary Se influences both innate and adaptive immune responses. However, the effects of Se deficiency in chicken spleen are still ...unknown; thus, we designed an experiment to study the role of Se in chicken spleen. A total of 180 one-day-old sea blue white laying hens were randomly allocated into two groups (a control group and a Se-deficient group). The control group was fed a diet supplemented with sodium selenite with a final Se content of 0.15 mg/kg, and the Se-deficient group was fed a Se-deficient diet with a Se content of 0.033 mg/kg. Twenty selenoproteins and ten cytokines were investigated in detail. The expression levels of selenoproteins in spleen were determined via real-time qPCR at 15, 35, and 55 days, and cytokine levels were determined using ELISA at 15, 35, and 55 days. Protein-protein interaction predictions and principal component analysis were performed. We found that the selenoprotein mRNA levels were significantly lower (
P
< 0.05) in the Se-deficient group compared with the control group. The expression levels of IL-2, IL-1β, IL-6, IFN-α, and IL-17 were significantly lower (
P
< 0.05), and the levels of IL-8, IL-10, IFN-γ, IFN-β, and TNF-α were significantly higher (
P
< 0.05) in the Se-deficient group. These selenoproteins were positively correlated with component 1 and component 2 of the PCA, but the relationship between cytokines and principal components in spleens was very complex. The investigation showed that Se deficiency caused a reduction in selenoprotein gene expression and further affected certain cytokines levels. Our results provide some compensatory data about selenoproteins and cytokines in spleens of Se-deficient chickens and provide clues for further research on the relationship between selenoproteins and cytokines.
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