Dynamics of the wetland ecosystem health in urban and rural settings in high altitude ecoregion.

The focus of the present study was to assess the dynamics of wetland ecosystem health in both urban and rural settings situated in the high-altitude Kashmir Himalayan ecoregion. The basic aim was to identify the drivers responsible for wetland degradation in order to sustain ecosystem services effectively. To achieve this, we examined water quality, trophic status, fish species diversity and human disturbances by analyzing changes in land use and land cover (LULC) since 1980.

Reassessing the availability of crop residue as a bioenergy resource in India: A field-survey based study.

Second-generation bioenergy, a carbon neutral or negative renewable resource, is crucial to achieving India's net-zero emission targets. Crop residues are being targeted as a bioenergy resource as they are otherwise burned on-field, leading to significant pollutant emissions. But estimating their bioenergy potential is problematic because of broad assumptions about their surplus fractions.

Molecular and functional characterization of protease from psychrotrophic Bacillus sp. HM49 in North-western Himalaya.

In this work, a psychrotrophic bacteria producing cold-active protease, was obtained from Dachigam National Park, an ecologically significant habitat in Western Himalayas owing to its varied endemic and endangered flora and fauna. This isolate was identified as Bacillus sp. HM49 via phenotypic, Gram staining, bio-chemical and 16S rRNA gene identification.

Exploring soil bacterial diversity in different micro-vegetational habitats of Dachigam National Park in North-western Himalaya.

Dachigam National Park (DNP), in Zabarwan mountains of north-western Himalaya constitutes a region of high biodiversity with greater endemism. DNP is known for its unique micro-climate together with distinct vegetational zones providing home to variety of threatened and endemic plant, animal, and bird species. However, studies on soil microbial diversity in fragile ecosystems of north-western Himalaya in general and DNP in particular are lacking.

Environmental noise-induced cardiovascular, metabolic and mental health disorders: a brief review.

Background: Environmental noise is a pervasive pollutant that is one of the greatest environmental threats to mental, physiological and psychological well-being and has a significant global health burden associated with it. Many epidemiological studies indicate long-term relationship of noise pollution with wide range of metabolic, cardio-vascular and respiratory disorders and diseases.

Objective: The goal of this study was to thoroughly analyse available literature on public health implications and various underlying biological mechanisms associated with ambient noise exposure, taking into account both objective and subjective measures of noise exposure.

Apportioning sedimentary organic matter sources and its degradation state: Inferences based on aliphatic hydrocarbons, amino acids and δN.

The sources and state of sedimentary organic matter (SOM) in fresh water aquatic systems are important to understand the carbon cycling in terrestrial environments. The composition of organic matter in the lake sediments demonstrates the physical and chemical condition of the lake ecosystems. However, the systematic and structured investigations focussed on to understand the source and fate of organic matters within eutrophic lakes is still far from clear.

Biochemical Characterization and Functional Analysis of Heat Stable High Potential Protease of Strain HM48 from Soils of Dachigam National Park in Kashmir Himalaya.

A novel temperature stable alkaline protease yielding bacteria was isolated from the soils of Dachigam National Park, which is known to be inhabited by a wide variety of endemic plant and animal species of Western Himalaya. This high-potential protease producing isolate was characterized and identified as strain HM48 by morphological, Gram's staining and biochemical techniques followed by molecular characterization using 16S rRNA approach. The extracellular protease of HM48 was purified by precipitating with ammonium sulfate (80%), followed by dialysis and Gel filtration chromatography increasing its purity by 5.