Papers by Chitra B Baniya
ZOO-Journal, Dec 31, 2019
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Himalayan Biodiversity
Species diversity with indices, distribution and abundance of fishes of Seti Gandaki River Basin,... more Species diversity with indices, distribution and abundance of fishes of Seti Gandaki River Basin, Pokhara, Nepal are described from five study sites, three along the main channel and two in major tributaries. Fishes were sampled using a cast-net following pass-removal method. Environmental variables were determined following the standard methods. In total, 30 species belonging to five orders, nine families and 24 genera with absolute abundance of 10,659 were recorded. A longitudinal pattern of distribution and species richness from upstream to downstream sites (17 to 21 species) was observed. Cyprinids were dominant followed by silurids, balitorids, channids, mastacembelids, belonids and cobitids. Distribution pattern and abundance data showed that the species Tor tor, Tor putitora, Chaguninus chagunio, Barilius barila, Opsarius barna, Danio rerio, Lepidocephalichthys guntea, Parachiloglanis hodgarti and Amblyceps mangois were not common in the study area. The environmental variable...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Genes
The Himalayan Arc is recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot. Among its numerous cryptic and ... more The Himalayan Arc is recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot. Among its numerous cryptic and undiscovered organisms, this composite high-mountain ecosystem harbors many taxa with adaptations to life in high elevations. However, evolutionary patterns and genomic features have been relatively rarely studied in Himalayan vertebrates. Here, we provide the first well-annotated transcriptome of a Greater Himalayan reptile species, the Ladakh Ground skink Asymblepharus ladacensis (Squamata: Scincidae). Based on tissues from the brain, an embryonic disc, and pooled organ material, using pair-end Illumina NextSeq 500 RNAseq, we assembled ~77,000 transcripts, which were annotated using seven functional databases. We tested ~1600 genes, known to be under positive selection in anurans and reptiles adapted to high elevations, and potentially detected positive selection for 114 of these genes in Asymblepharus. Even though the strength of these results is limited due to the single-animal appro...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Folia Geobotanica
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Institute of Science and Technology, Jul 18, 2017
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Ecology and Evolution
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Freshwater Ecology
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Ecology and Evolution, 2021
Harvesting of orchids for medicine and salep production is a traditional practice,
and increasing... more Harvesting of orchids for medicine and salep production is a traditional practice,
and increasing market demand is spurring illegal harvest. Ethno-ecological
studies in combination with the effect of anthropogenic disturbance are lacking for orchids. We compared population density and structure, and tuber biomass of Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Don) Soó for three years in two sites: Manang, where harvesting of medicinal plants was locally regulated (protected), and Darchula, where harvesting was locally unregulated (unprotected). Six populations were studied along an elevation gradient by establishing 144 temporary plots (3 × 3 m2) from 3,400 to 4,600 m elevations. Mean density of D. hatagirea was significantly higher in the locally protected (1.31 ± 0.17 plants/m2) than in the unprotected (0.72 ± 0.06 plants/m2) site. The protected site showed stable population density with high reproductive fitness and tuber biomass over the three-year period. A significant negative effect (p < .1) of relative radiation index (RRI) on the density of the adult vegetative stage and a positive
effect of herb cover on juvenile and adult vegetative stages were found using mixed
zero-inflated Poisson (mixed ZIP) models. The densities of different life stages were
highly sensitive to harvesting and livestock grazing. Significant interactions between
site and harvesting and grazing indicated particularly strong negative effects of these
disturbances on densities of juvenile and adult reproductive stages in the unprotected
site. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with informants (n = 186) in
the villages and at the ecological survey sites. Our interview results showed that at
the protected site people are aware of the conservation status and maintain sustainable populations, whereas the opposite was the case at the unprotected site where the populations are threatened. Sustainability of D. hatagirea populations, therefore, largely depends on controlling illegal and premature harvesting and unregulated livestock grazing, thus indicating the need for permanent monitoring of the species.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Terricolous Lichens in India, 2013
ABSTRACT Despite the great importance of terricolous lichens very few efforts have been done towa... more ABSTRACT Despite the great importance of terricolous lichens very few efforts have been done towards the elevational richness pattern and their ecology from the Himalayas. In present study elevational ranges of terricolous lichen richness were interpolated at every 100 m altitudinal band. They were found distributed from 100 to 6,000 m. A total of 212 terricolous lichen species under 54 genera and 24 families were found recorded in India and Nepal. These terricolous lichen species showed a highly significant unimodal elevational declining pattern with dominant peak at 2,400 m. This unimodal richness pattern was also followed by their dominant families but differed in elevation of peak richness. The zones of dominance and diversity richness of terricolous lichen species were discussed with reference to natural and anthropogenic factors specific to Himalayan habitats.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting... more BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This study of elevation gradients of lichen species richness in Nepal aimed to compare distributi... more This study of elevation gradients of lichen species richness in Nepal aimed to compare distribution patterns of different life-forms, substratum affinities, photobiont types, and Nepalese endemism. Distribution patterns of lichens were compared with elevational patterns shown by a wide range of taxonomic groups of plants along the Nepalese Himalayan elevational gradient between 200–7400m. We used published data on the elevation records of 525 Nepalese lichen species to interpolate presence between the maximum and minimum recorded elevations, thereby giving estimates of lichen species richness at each 100-m elevational band. The observed patterns were compared with previously published patterns for other taxonomic groups. The total number of lichens as well as the number of endemic species (55 spp.) showed humped relationships with elevation. Their highest richness was observed between 3100–3400 and 4000–4100m, respectively. Almost 33% of the total lichens and 53% of the endemic species occurred above the treeline (>4300m). Non-endemic richness had the same response as the total richness. All growth forms showed a unimodal relationship of richness with elevation, with crustose lichens having a peak at higher elevations (4100–4200m) than fruticose and foliose lichens. Algal and cyanobacterial lichen richness, as well as corticolous lichen richness, all exhibited unimodal patterns, whereas saxicolous and terricolous lichen richness exhibited slightly bimodal relationships with elevation. The highest lichen richness at mid altitudes concurred with the highest diversity of ecological niches in terms of spatial heterogeneity in rainfall, temperature, cloud formation, as well as high phorophyte abundance and diversity implying large variation in bark roughness, moisture retention capacity, and pH. The slightly bimodal distributions of saxicolous and terricolous lichens were depressed at the elevational maximum of corticolous lichens.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Secondary succession is an increasing phenomenon due to global changes in agriculture policies an... more Secondary succession is an increasing phenomenon due to global changes in agriculture policies and practices. The empirical findings are biased towards the temperate zone. Abandonment of agriculture fields is less frequent in the subtropical and tropical zones where agriculture areas are, in general, expanding. But there are exceptions; a rapid rate of abandonment of agricultural fields have taken place in the arid trans-Himalayan region, due to today's globalization of economy. We analysed agriculture fields that were abandoned between 1950 and 2003 in a large u-valley in central Nepal (3400 m a.s.l.). The potential forest vegetation is dominated by Pinus wallichina and shrubs of junipers and cotoneaster species. We tested the intermediate richness hypothesis in relation to vegetation cover, soil development and whether old-field succession is convergent or divergent with species data from 242 1 m 2 plots in 5 age-classes. The main species compositional turnover expressed by Detrended Correspondence Analyses (DCA) correlated, as expected, with time after abandonment. Fields that were abandoned a long time ago are closer to forest at the periphery of the agricultural landscape. Moisture of the soil significantly increased with age of abandonment, but total vegetation cover and pH were negatively related to age. Beta diversity expressed in DCA SD-units showed an increasing trend with age of abandonment, supporting the divergence pattern in old-field succession. The reason why the succession is not converging may be due to browsing by domestic animals that prevent a closed canopy of pines and juniper to develop. There was a significant hump-shaped pattern in species richness along the temporal gradient, which agrees with the intermediate species-richness hypothesis. There was a rapid increase in species richness in plots close to the villages that were used for haymaking which increased the seed input significantly.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Elevation confers limitations on distribution of organisms through correlated
variations in tempe... more Elevation confers limitations on distribution of organisms through correlated
variations in temperature, moisture, radiations and precipitation. The elevation gradients of
terricolous lichen species richness in Garhwal, western Himalaya were assessed using
generalized additive models, in order to compare distribution patterns of different growthforms,
photobiont types, and dominant families. A total of 148 terricolous lichen species
belonging to 42 genera and 19 families were recorded. The total species richness showed
unimodal relationship with elevation, where the highest species richness was observed at
mid elevations (3,200 m). The species richness of lichens with green algae (chlorolichens)
and of lichens with cyanobacteria (cyanolichens) also exhibited significant unimodal
elevational patterns with cyanolichens peaked at somewhat lower (2,800–2,900 m) elevation
than chlorolichens (3,200 m). Growth forms showed statistically significant relationship
of species richness to elevation, with crustose and squamulose lichens reaching
their maxima at higher elevation than foliose, fruticose and dimorphic terricolous lichens.
Unimodal pattern of species richness was also followed by six dominant families, with
these families reaching maximum richness at different elevations. Elevational variation in
topography, climate, and competition from vascular plant communities, together with the
tolerance of specific growth forms to zoo-anthropogenic pressures, shape the distribution of
terricolous lichens in the Garhwal Himalaya.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Integration of WorldView-2 satellite image with small footprint airborne LiDAR data for estimatio... more Integration of WorldView-2 satellite image with small footprint airborne LiDAR data for estimation oftree carbon at species level has been investigated in tropical forests of Nepal. This research aims toquantify and map carbon stock for dominant tree species in Chitwan district of central Nepal. Object basedimage analysis and supervised nearest neighbor classification methods were deployed for tree canopyretrieval and species level classification respectively. Initially, six dominant tree species (Shorea robusta,Schima wallichii, Lagerstroemia parviflora, Terminalia tomentosa, Mallotus philippinensis and Semecarpusanacardium) were able to be identified and mapped through image classification. The result showed a76% accuracy of segmentation and 1970.99 as best average separability. Tree canopy height model (CHM)was extracted based on LiDAR’s first and last return from an entire study area. On average, a significantcorrelation coefficient (r) between canopy projection area (CPA) and carbon; height and carbon; and CPAand height were obtained as 0.73, 0.76 and 0.63, respectively for correctly detected trees. Carbon stockmodel validation results showed regression models being able to explain up to 94%, 78%, 76%, 84% and78% of variations in carbon estimation for the following tree species: S. robusta, L. parviflora, T. tomentosa,S. wallichii and others (combination of rest tree species).
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Botanica Orientalis: Journal of Plant Science, Jan 1, 2012
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Papers by Chitra B Baniya
and increasing market demand is spurring illegal harvest. Ethno-ecological
studies in combination with the effect of anthropogenic disturbance are lacking for orchids. We compared population density and structure, and tuber biomass of Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Don) Soó for three years in two sites: Manang, where harvesting of medicinal plants was locally regulated (protected), and Darchula, where harvesting was locally unregulated (unprotected). Six populations were studied along an elevation gradient by establishing 144 temporary plots (3 × 3 m2) from 3,400 to 4,600 m elevations. Mean density of D. hatagirea was significantly higher in the locally protected (1.31 ± 0.17 plants/m2) than in the unprotected (0.72 ± 0.06 plants/m2) site. The protected site showed stable population density with high reproductive fitness and tuber biomass over the three-year period. A significant negative effect (p < .1) of relative radiation index (RRI) on the density of the adult vegetative stage and a positive
effect of herb cover on juvenile and adult vegetative stages were found using mixed
zero-inflated Poisson (mixed ZIP) models. The densities of different life stages were
highly sensitive to harvesting and livestock grazing. Significant interactions between
site and harvesting and grazing indicated particularly strong negative effects of these
disturbances on densities of juvenile and adult reproductive stages in the unprotected
site. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with informants (n = 186) in
the villages and at the ecological survey sites. Our interview results showed that at
the protected site people are aware of the conservation status and maintain sustainable populations, whereas the opposite was the case at the unprotected site where the populations are threatened. Sustainability of D. hatagirea populations, therefore, largely depends on controlling illegal and premature harvesting and unregulated livestock grazing, thus indicating the need for permanent monitoring of the species.
variations in temperature, moisture, radiations and precipitation. The elevation gradients of
terricolous lichen species richness in Garhwal, western Himalaya were assessed using
generalized additive models, in order to compare distribution patterns of different growthforms,
photobiont types, and dominant families. A total of 148 terricolous lichen species
belonging to 42 genera and 19 families were recorded. The total species richness showed
unimodal relationship with elevation, where the highest species richness was observed at
mid elevations (3,200 m). The species richness of lichens with green algae (chlorolichens)
and of lichens with cyanobacteria (cyanolichens) also exhibited significant unimodal
elevational patterns with cyanolichens peaked at somewhat lower (2,800–2,900 m) elevation
than chlorolichens (3,200 m). Growth forms showed statistically significant relationship
of species richness to elevation, with crustose and squamulose lichens reaching
their maxima at higher elevation than foliose, fruticose and dimorphic terricolous lichens.
Unimodal pattern of species richness was also followed by six dominant families, with
these families reaching maximum richness at different elevations. Elevational variation in
topography, climate, and competition from vascular plant communities, together with the
tolerance of specific growth forms to zoo-anthropogenic pressures, shape the distribution of
terricolous lichens in the Garhwal Himalaya.
and increasing market demand is spurring illegal harvest. Ethno-ecological
studies in combination with the effect of anthropogenic disturbance are lacking for orchids. We compared population density and structure, and tuber biomass of Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Don) Soó for three years in two sites: Manang, where harvesting of medicinal plants was locally regulated (protected), and Darchula, where harvesting was locally unregulated (unprotected). Six populations were studied along an elevation gradient by establishing 144 temporary plots (3 × 3 m2) from 3,400 to 4,600 m elevations. Mean density of D. hatagirea was significantly higher in the locally protected (1.31 ± 0.17 plants/m2) than in the unprotected (0.72 ± 0.06 plants/m2) site. The protected site showed stable population density with high reproductive fitness and tuber biomass over the three-year period. A significant negative effect (p < .1) of relative radiation index (RRI) on the density of the adult vegetative stage and a positive
effect of herb cover on juvenile and adult vegetative stages were found using mixed
zero-inflated Poisson (mixed ZIP) models. The densities of different life stages were
highly sensitive to harvesting and livestock grazing. Significant interactions between
site and harvesting and grazing indicated particularly strong negative effects of these
disturbances on densities of juvenile and adult reproductive stages in the unprotected
site. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with informants (n = 186) in
the villages and at the ecological survey sites. Our interview results showed that at
the protected site people are aware of the conservation status and maintain sustainable populations, whereas the opposite was the case at the unprotected site where the populations are threatened. Sustainability of D. hatagirea populations, therefore, largely depends on controlling illegal and premature harvesting and unregulated livestock grazing, thus indicating the need for permanent monitoring of the species.
variations in temperature, moisture, radiations and precipitation. The elevation gradients of
terricolous lichen species richness in Garhwal, western Himalaya were assessed using
generalized additive models, in order to compare distribution patterns of different growthforms,
photobiont types, and dominant families. A total of 148 terricolous lichen species
belonging to 42 genera and 19 families were recorded. The total species richness showed
unimodal relationship with elevation, where the highest species richness was observed at
mid elevations (3,200 m). The species richness of lichens with green algae (chlorolichens)
and of lichens with cyanobacteria (cyanolichens) also exhibited significant unimodal
elevational patterns with cyanolichens peaked at somewhat lower (2,800–2,900 m) elevation
than chlorolichens (3,200 m). Growth forms showed statistically significant relationship
of species richness to elevation, with crustose and squamulose lichens reaching
their maxima at higher elevation than foliose, fruticose and dimorphic terricolous lichens.
Unimodal pattern of species richness was also followed by six dominant families, with
these families reaching maximum richness at different elevations. Elevational variation in
topography, climate, and competition from vascular plant communities, together with the
tolerance of specific growth forms to zoo-anthropogenic pressures, shape the distribution of
terricolous lichens in the Garhwal Himalaya.