Feature Article

After two decades of hardwork, on 5 February 2012, a team of Russian scientists began drilling at Lake Vostok, the largest of more than 140 sub-glacial lakes and the most deeply buried of the lakes hidden under the Antarctic ice cap.

This correspondence refers to a recent note about monitoring alpine treeline in the Western Himalaya and few other
recent studies on the same aspect. Alpine zones in the Himalayas are the highest vegetation zones where seedbearing plants are found, but tree growth is excluded. Upper and lower boundaries of alpine zones are traditionally set as

Here the authors report the field evidences observed at Milam glacier, Goriganga basin, Kumaon Himalaya during the glaciological expedition carried out in July 2011 and the observations from Resourcesat-2 LISS IV data. (Correspondence)

Although recent and projected increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide can alter plant phenological development, these changes have not been quantified in terms of floral outcrossing rates or gene transfer. Could differential phenological development in response to rising CO2 between genetically modified crops and wild, weedy relatives increase the spread of novel genes, potentially altering evolutionary fitness?

Egg-burying reptiles need relatively stable temperature and humidity in the substrate surrounding their eggs for successful development and hatchling emergence. Here we show that egg and hatchling mortality of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in northwest Costa Rica were affected by climatic variability (precipitation and air temperature) driven by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Drier and warmer conditions associated with El Niño increased egg and hatchling mortality.

The number of described species on the planet is about 1.9 million, with ca. 17,000 new species described annually, mostly from the tropics. However, taxonomy is usually described as a science in crisis, lacking manpower and funding, a politically acknowledged problem known as the Taxonomic Impediment. Using data from the Fauna Europaea database and the Zoological Record, we show that contrary to general belief, developed and heavily-studied parts of the world are important reservoirs of unknown species.

In the US, the cultivated area (hectares) and production (tonnes) of crops that require or benefit from insect pollination (directly dependent crops: apples, almonds, blueberries, cucurbits, etc.) increased from 1992, the first year in this study, through 1999 and continued near those levels through 2009; aggregate yield (tonnes/hectare) remained unchanged.

But a workshop on equity at the climate inter-sessional refused to move beyond well-embedded party demarcations. It was India, which at last year’s climate negotiations at Durban had insisted on bringing the principle of equity back into the agenda for tackling climate change. The concept, which not so long ago had almost fallen off the climate agenda now features in almost everyone’s negotiation agenda at the mid-year climate change meeting at Bonn.

The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011 views all social and economic forms of organisation in the country as a homogeneous whole, ignoring the differences within rural areas and in tribal societies. Especially in the latter, not only is the overall perception of resources like land distinct from non-tribal areas but even the role of women is much more dominant both inside and outside the home.