Project Title: Assessing the Potential Health of Indian Himalayan Peatland through Long-Term Monitoring of the Eukaryotic Microbial Community and its Interaction with the Carbon Dynamics
1. Project Details
Sanction Date: 20.03.2025
Project Category MG
Year 2024-2025
Project Duration 3 Years
BTA : BCM
Project Site/ State/ Districts/ Villages Covered:

Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, North Sikkim

Organization/ Implementation Agency: Zoological Survey of India
Project Partners: S.No. Name
1. State Forest Department
Lead Proponent:

Dr. Jasmine P.
Scientist-E & Head, Protozoology Section Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) Kolkata, West Bengal

Project Brief Description: Peatlands are globally important ecosystems in terms of biodiversity, hydrology, and for the role they play in the carbon cycle (Charman, 2002). Peatlands store approximately one third of the carbon contained in the terrestrial biosphere, whilst covering only approximately 3% of the land and freshwater surface (Holden, 2005). To fully understand how tropical peatlands may respond to such drivers of change, knowledge of their developmental history and past ecohydrological dynamics is needed. Peatlands in India have been recorded in Arunachal Pradesh, northern parts of Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala. Parts of the Western Ghats range are also reported to have peatlands. Other regions with potential distribution of peatlands aremangroves and delta regions. However, due to lack of monitoring and mapping efforts, the distribution is not well documented from India. As peatland ecosystems are environments deficient in various inorganic nutrients and have very high organic matter loadings, it is likely that the microbial loop plays a key role in their functioning. Furthermore, Protozoa, the central players in the microbial loop, are less sensitive to the acidity of the medium than Metazoa. They could, thus, have a dominant role in the trophic pathways in peatlands. In addition, the relative importance of the microbial loop and the way it functions could be early indicators of human disturbances to aquatic biological communities. For these reasons, a study of the structure and function of the main groups of microorganisms forming the microbial loop in a peatland will be undertaken. Eukaryotic microbes form an important micro faunal component of aquatic, semi- aquatic and soil communities. They are sensitive to ecological parameters like pH, humidity, temperature, etc. Eukaryotic microorganisms such as shelled amoeba serve as efficient tools for micro-paleontological studies and palaeoecological reconstructions. Eukaryotic microbes play a predominant role in regulating the conservation and release of SOC (soil organic carbon). They degrade litter and then allocate the carbon to microbial biomass, exudate carbon as microbial derived organic matter or release carbon by heterotrophic respiration. Marcisz et al. 2015 reported that in peat land ecosystems, bacteria are the main decomposers, which can contribute to greenhouse gases emission. Eukaryotic microbes such as testate amoebae, ciliates, and nematodes are significant consumers of algae, bacteria, and flagellates, and they participate in the decomposition of organic matter and the cycling of nutrients. The study will also aim at determining the type of peatlands, its current status with an analysis of soil/water physiochemical parameters, diversity of eukaryotic microbial community and its interaction with carbon dynamics of the region and develop an atlas of the true Peatlands. The long-term effectiveness of the suggested monitoring programme depends on the development of local capacity and raising awareness among all stakeholders. As a result, it is suggested that long-term monitoring plots can be established in the peatlands of the Indian Himalayas, as well as local capacity building through training programmes and resource materials, regarding the current status as well as future threats to peatlands, in local languages.
Beneficiaries/ Stakeholders:

• Establishment of long-term monitoring plots would directly or indirectly benefit many user groups. Immediate beneficiaries will be the local communities who will use the findings of the project to reorganize their harvest for sustainable utilization. At state and national level, respective forest departments and conservation agencies will have periodic information on the health of the ecosystem. This time series information across geospatial scale is essential for taking appropriate policy decisions and to implement conservation intervention measures. An indicative list of beneficiaries is provided below.
• Local Bodies: 1. Farmers 2. Gram Panchayats 3. Other local administrative bodies 4. Schools and colleges. 5. Grass root level NGO’s
• State: 1. Forest and Environment departments. 2. State Biodiversity boards. 3. Climate change monitoring centers. 4. Universities, research organizations 5. Health, Agriculture, fisheries and animal husbandry departments.
• National: 1. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change 2. Ministry of Health 3. Ministry of Agriculture 4. Ministry of Earth sciences 5. G.B. Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development 6. Universities, Research Organizations and NGO’s.
• International: 1. IPCC 2. IUCN 3. CBD

Activity Chart
2. Financial Details
Total Grants (in Rs.) Rs. 24,700,000/-(Rupees Two Crore Forty-Seven Lakh Only)
3. Project Objectives, Deliverables and Monitoring Indicators
Project Objectives Quantifiable Deliverables Monitoring Indicators
• To assess the eukaryotic microbial diversity in the Indian Himalayan peat land based on integrative taxonomic approach through long term monitoring plots
• To study the role of microbial community in peat formation and determine the indicator taxa through long-term monitoring protocols of selected Himalayan peatlands and designate the type of peatlands.
• To monitor the current environmental status/ health card of the Peatland ecosystem through ecological observations and carbon dynamics for developing the true Atlas of Peatlands status in the Indian Himalayan Region.
• To generate a taxonomic database of eukaryotic communities in Indian peatlands
• To protect and safeguard the Peat participation communities.
• Microbial diversity dataset with taxonomic classifications.
• Classification of peatland types.
• Atdlas of peatland health status with carbon sequestration potential.
• Open-access digital database of microbial diversity in peatlands.
• Awareness programs, community-based conservation strategies, and policy recommendations.
• No. of microbial taxa identified and characterized, establishment of long-term monitoring plots.
• List of indicator taxa, correlation between microbial composition and peat formation, classification framework for Himalayan peatlands.
• Peatland health indices, carbon storage measurements, periodic ecological assessments.
• No. of taxa recorded in the database, accessibility and usage statistics of the database.
• No. of community workshops conducted, adoption of conservation practices
• No. of research papers, technical reports, and policy documents published.
S.No. Name (Sanctioned) Salary (Sanctioned)
1. 05 SRF @ Rs.42,000/- + 30% HRA
2. 05 JRF @ Rs.37,000/- + 30% HRA
S.No. Name of Equipment (Sanctioned) Cost (in INR)
1. 08 Software (for analysis of large scale environmental and genomic data, Geographical, hydrographic data and statistical Analysis)@200000/- 01 Semi micro balance with high accuracy of 0.5 digital accuracy@300000/-, 01 Field Laptops-12th Gen@40000/-,01Macro lenses for camera@60000/-, 01 Drone (Take-off weight 895 900 g., 01TOC Analyzer @2800000/-, 02 Multiparameter @1,50,000/-, UV-Vis Spectrophotometer@5,00,000/-,01 DIC Microscope with Camera@12,50,000/-, 01Projector@30,000, 01Printer with cartridges@47937/- 57,17,937/-
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