Application of remote sensing in alpine grasslands cover mapping of western Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India.

Grasslands are the world's most extensive terrestrial ecosystem, which provides a variety of services for humans, such as carbon storage, food production, crop pollination, pest regulation, and are a major feed source for livestock. However, grasslands are today one of the most endangered ecosystems due to land-use change, agricultural intensification, land abandonment, as well as climate change. Grasslands are an integral part of human societies across the globe, which are broadly known as tropical savannah and temperate grasslands. In the Himalayan region, grasslands are found in more than 55% of the area and different climatic conditions lead to different varieties of grasslands like Danthonia grasslands, kobresia sedge meadow, etc. Grasslands deal with the spatial and temporal distribution of heterogeneous landscapes, which support a high diversity of various species. Owing to very rugged terrain and inaccessibility, the information on the extent of alpine grassland and percent grass cover (%) across the meadows is limited. Therefore, the present attempt was made to assess the current status of grassland in the alpine region of Uttarakhand above 3000 m asl. LANDSAT-8 (OLI and TIRS sensors) satellite data were used to delineate the grasslands using normalized difference vegetation indices (NDVIs) of the alpine region with the help of over 179 ground truth points out of which 50 points are testing points and 129 points are training points. Grass covers (%) were also assessed in the whole alpine region of Western Himalaya of Uttarakhand which nearly consists of over 75 meadows by using random plots (1 × 1 m, total 10 per site) in each meadow. Overall, 89.52% accuracy was achieved based on 50 randomly selected testing points. A total of 4949.25 sq. km area is under the different percentage of grass cover in the alpine region of Uttarakhand, Western Himalaya. Danthonia grasslands below 4000 m and Kobresia sedge meadows above 4000 m elevation are dominant in the state. In the alpine region, over 1056 sq. km grassland area have less than 10% grass cover indicating higher degraded and cold desert areas and only 565.69 sq. km area have more than 60% grass cover, which is highly favorable for rich biodiversity and grazing.

High Field Emission Current Density from Patterned Carbon Nanotube Field Emitter Arrays with Random Growth.

High field emission (FE) current density from carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays grown on lithographically patterned silicon substrates is reported. A typical patterned field emitter array consists of bundles of nanotubes separated by a fixed gap and spread over the entire emission area. Emission performance from such an array having randomly oriented nanotube growth within each bundle is reported for different bundle sizes and separations. One typical sample with aligned CNTs within the bundle is also examined for comparison. It is seen that the current density from an array having random nanotube growth within the bundles is appreciably higher as compared to its aligned counterpart. The influence of structure on FE current densities as revealed by Raman spectroscopy is also seen. It is also observed that current density depends on edge length and increases with the same for all samples under study. Highest current density of -100 mA cm(-2) at an applied field of 5 V/µm is achieved from the random growth patterned sample with a bundle size of 2 µm and spacing of 4 µm between the bundles.

Environmental influences on landslide activity : Almora Bypass, Kumaun Lesser Himalaya

Landslides are self-organizing and self-referenced systems. The conditions which lead to their emergence along Himalayan highways are not the same as those which their subsequent evolution. Landslides originate at sites which differ from average conditions by having significantly higher, steeper roadcuts, carved into steeper hillsides, with more finely bedded but less steeply dipping rocks, and fewer trees upslope. The system exhibits independence (autopoiesis) from its environment. Additionally, landslides dominated by rock-mechanical processes tend to produce lower angle outfalls from higher, north-facting, roadcuts than those dominated by soil-mechanical processes which are associated with greater dephts of below-soil regolith. However, the outfall volumes produced by the landdslides of different type are similar. These findings are generated from statistical (correlation/T-test/stepwise discriminant) analyses of data produced by a field survery of average environmental conditions, and the morphometry and environmental contexts of 88 landslides, on 7.6 km of the Almora Bypass (AU)