Grasslands, in spite of being a major sink of atmospheric carbon and source to feed for herds, reported to deplete worldwide. The Himalayan grasslands have witnessed unprecedented changes in the patterns of resource utilization and the influence of globalization such as population pressure, growth of tourism activities, and the consequent land use intensification coupled with changing climate, poses serious threats to the replenishment and flow of ecosystem services. One important aspect of the Himalayan high-altitude grasslands is the relatively low comprehension of ecological functioning of the system. In addition, almost no literature exists on the aspect of carbon and water pool estimation of these resources with respect their community structures. Therefore, interactions of Himalayan high-altitude grassland carbon-water and climate- interactions at multiple scales are not known. Consequently, ecosystem services are poorly quantified leading to limited policy formation for grassland management and grassland-dependent community. Hence, The overarching aim of the project is to quantify the carbon and water budgets of selected high-altitude grasslands of Himalaya with the preliminary estimates of ecosystem services supporting ecological carrying capacities. Within the broader aim of the project the following objectives are to be addressed: 1. To assess the ecological functional traits of selected high-altitude grasslands with assessment of ecological integrity. 2. Assessment of hydrological budget of selected high-altitude grasslands. 3. To monitor and assess carbon-water dynamics of selected high-altitude grasslands and their functional relationships with microclimatic parameters. 4. To estimate the ecological carrying capacity and ecosystem services of selected grasslands. 5. Assessment of eco-hydro-climatological processes with information theory-based process network and understanding resilience under shock. The final goal of this project is to converge the research outcomes of objectives 1-5 to policy prescriptions for high-altitude grassland conservation and management. The study will be conducted over three selected grasslands of Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Ladakh Himalaya, respectively. The Darma grasslands of Uttarakhand (above 3300 masl), Yumthang grasslands of Sikkim (above 3500 masl), and a grassland from Changthang region of Ladakh (above 4500 masl) are selected for this study. As indicated by Rawat, (1998), the two broad categories of grasslands targeted in this study are (i) alpine meadows (Uttarakhand and Sikkim) and (ii) steppe formations of cold arid regions (Ladakh). The rationale for selecting these high-altitude grasslands are their contrasting community behaviour. The most common grasses of alpine meadows is Danthonia Cachemyriana, which provide nitrogen rich fodder to grazing animals. However, dominant grasses from Poacea, Festuca Spp, Carex Spp., Bromus Spp., Lolium Spp., Lupinus Spp., etc can be observed both in Steppe and Alpine meadows with different species. The most common grass of Steppe is reported to be Elymus nutans, species of Stipa and Agropyron. Leymus secalinus is a major grass species noted in eastern Ladakh consumed by Tibetan Wild Ass10. One important aspect of the grasslands of Ladakh is the collocation of grasslands and peats, wherein peats are water-logged terrestrial ecosystems where plants materials are not fully decomposed. In addition, such mixed grass and peatlands of Ladakh are also known to form permaheaps responsible for winter water freezing and summer thawing resulting sustained water flows downstream. In addition, the goat herds dependent on these grasslands are different, for example the Pashmina Goats are only dependent on the steppe formations of cold arid grasslands of Ladakh, and cannot be found in Uttarakhand and Sikkim.

• Biological Diversity and Productivity Database.
• Technical reports on ecological integrity of grasslands of Himalaya.
• Hydrological budgets of three (03) grasslands.
• Hydro-meteorological database of (03) grasslands.
• Database on carbon-water fluxes of high-altitude grassland (03.)
• Technical reports on carbonwater dynamics.
• New tools and methodologies for natural resource assessment.
• Assessment reports one cosystem services and carrying capacity.
• At least 08 knowledge products: 04 quality research publications (journals), 02 book chapters, and 02 data compendiums.

• No. of biodiversity and productivity records documented.
• Reports on ecological integrity completed.
• No. of hydrological budgets completed.
• Hydro-meteorological database completion and updates.
• Number of carbon-water flux datasets generated.
• No. Tools/ methodologies developed and tested.
• Reports on carrying capacity and ecosystem services assessment.
• No. of research publications,book chapters, and data compendiums published.
• Citation and impact assessment of knowledge dissemination.