Proceedings of International Conference on Biodiversity, Livelihood and Climate Change in the Himalayas Editors Pramod Kumar Jha Krishna Kumar Shrestha Ram Prasad Chaudhary Bharat Babu Shrestha Published by Central Department of Botany Tribhuvan University Kirtipur, Kathmandu
Proceedings of International Conference on Biodiversity, Livelihood and Climate Change in the Himalayas Copyright 2015: Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu All rights reserved: No part of this book may be produced by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise copied for public or private use without written permission from the Central Department of Botany. Citation: Birks, H.J.B. 2015. Biodiversity, livelihood and climate change in the Himalayan region. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Biodiversity, Livelihood and Climate Change in the Himalayas. (eds.) Jha, P.K., K.K. Shrestha, R.P. Chaudhary and B.B. Shrestha. Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu. pp. 1-39. ISBN: 978-9937-2-9287-0 Computer Layout: Rajesh Tandukar, 9841345999, 01-4992499 Printed: Mass Printers, Tahachal, Kathmandu, 4271506
CONTENTS 1. Biodiversity, Livelihood, and Climate Change in the Himalayan Region 1 H John B Birks 2. Agriculture and Climate Change at the Crossroad: A Nepalese Context 40 Khem Raj Dahal 3. Climate Change Impacts on Forest and Biodiversity in Eastern Nepal: Peoples' Perception, Initiatives and Responses 53 Rijan Tamrakar, Deepak Kumar Rijal and Bhuwan Dhakal 4. Impact of Climate Change on Animal Parasites: A Review 64 Sushil Paudyal 5. Socio-economic Status and Climatic Effects on the Production of Agronomic Crops in Hilly Regions of District Dir, Northern Pakistan 70 Ahmad Khan, Imran Khan, Sajjad Zaheer and Badshah Islam 6. Intellectual Property Rights Protection: The Case of India 80 U.C. Jha 7. Reportage on Transboundary Biodiversity Conservation for Tigers in Nepal 86 Jhamak B. Karki, Megh B. Pandey and Gopal P. Upadhyay 8. Biodiversity Conservation at Landscape Level: Lessons from Western Tarai Landscape in Nepal 92 Ek Raj Sigdel 9. Fish Diversity and Water Quality of the Arun River, Nepal 104 Gyan Kumar Chhipi Shrestha, Jiwan Shrestha and Kapil Singh 10. Cordyceps Diversity of Nepal, Its Conservation and Cultivation Prospects 116 Bhushan Shrestha 11. Derived Value of Provisional Ecosystem Goods and Its Impact on Human Development Index: A Case Study of Chhekampar VDC, Manaslu Conservation Area, Gorkha, Nepal 127 Ashesh Acharya, Top B. Khatri, Kumar Lamichhane, S. Poudel and Nistha Upreti
12. Taxonomy and Zoological Science in Nepal: Status, Issues and Suggestions 137 Prem B. Budha 13. Macro-invertebrate Assemblage in Riffle and Pools of Seti Gandaki River, Pokhara, Nepal: Spatio-temporal Variations 149 K.K. Pokharel 14. Rangeland Management in Mountains of China: A Brief Policy Review 164 Yan Zhaoli and Wu Ning 15. Provisioning Ecosystem Services from Forest Plantations for Rural Livelihoods in Darjeeling Hills, India 168 Rajesh Kumar Rai and Joachim Schmerbeck 16. Spatial Explicit Modeling for Simulating Farm Income and Ecological Repercussion through Soil Management Scenarios 181 Gopal Datt Bhatta and Ujjwal Chapagain 17. Honeybees, Their Pollination Behavior and Relation to Livelihoods 197 Dinesh Panday 18. Improved Cooking Stove as An Effective Means of Climate Change Mitigation 209 Keshav Raj Acharya 19. Comparison of Improved and Traditional Cooking Stove User in terms of Firewood Consumption A Case Study of Chhekampar Village, Manaslu Conservation Area Gorkha, Nepal 217 Sanjeev Poudel, Kumar Lamichhane, Ashesh Acharya and Mukesh K. Chettri 20. Major Issues in Strategy Development of Lakes in Nepal 225 Ukesh Raj Bhuju Kathmandu Declaration 236
Proceedings of International Conference on Biodiversity, Livelihood and Climate Change in the Himalayas, 2015, pp. 64-69 Eds: P.K. Jha, K.K. Shrestha, R.P. Chaudhary and B.B. Shrestha Publisher: Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON ANIMAL PARASITES: A REVIEW Sushil Paudyal Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences Tribhuvan University, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal Email: suhilpaudyal@gmail.com ABSTRACT Fecal parasites from livestock and wild animals complete their life cycle after hatching in the pasture at favorable conditions followed by subsequent incubation and reinfection in the animals. The ongoing climate change especially warm winters and increased humidity is providing favorable environment for hatching of more parasite eggs, since infection is dependent on the number of eggs available to hatch per acre. Even with a small egg number, high hatch and development success rate of many infective larvae and parasite will be more of a problem. Moreover, the winters are not cold enough to kill worms and can not slow down hatching and development rates of parasites. Survival of free living larval stages shed from the previous year through the winter on pasture increases the high infection rate in livestock. Extended survival period will enable insects such as grasshopper to complete a greater number of reproductive cycles during spring, summer and autumn. These all increase chances of parasitic infection in livestock leading to poor health and decreased production. Thus, there is an urgent need of improved surveillance, diagnosis and systematic study of parasitic diseases brought about by climate change for efficient disease preventive strategies. Key words: Animal parasite, climate change, incubation, hatching. INTRODUCTION Overall health of an individual animal is the result of complex interactions among immune status, body condition, pathogens and their pathogenicity, toxicant exposure, and the various environmental conditions that interact with these factors. Climate change affects these interactions in several ways (Burek et al. 2008). Climate change is expected to cause an increase in weather-related disasters and extreme weather events, such as droughts, heat waves, storms, and desertification. These long-term 64
changes in climate will jeopardize the future of all animals including those in oceans, on farms, in forests, in wilderness areas, and in our homes. Warm and wet weather (particularly warmer winters due to climate change) will increase the risk and occurrence of animal diseases, as certain species who serve as disease vectors, such as biting flies and ticks, are more likely to survive for extended period year-round. Certain existing parasitic diseases may also become more prevalent, or their geographical range may spread. This may contribute to an increase in disease spread, including zoonotic diseases. The environmental conditions that favor parasitic development are virtually identical to those required for germination of a plant seed. This is in a manner that both respond to the same conditions they will germinate (hatch) and grow above some critical temperature, but the rate of growth is accelerated in warmer conditions. Development is only half of the picture for parasite transmission. The other factor is persistence, or how long infective stages survive in the environment. Persistence has a greater impact on the cumulative numbers of parasites acquired. Climate change scenario Climatologists have identified upward trends in global temperature and now estimate an unprecedented rise of 2.0 C by the year 2100 (Patz et al. 1996). Of major concern is that these changes can affect the introduction and dissemination of many serious infectious diseases. The incidence of mosquito-borne diseases, including malaria, dengue, and viral encephalitides, are among those diseases most sensitive to climate (Patz et al. 1996). Climate change would directly affect disease transmission by shifting the vector's geographic range and increasing reproductive and biting rates and by shortening the pathogen incubation period. Climate-related increase in sea surface temperature and sea level can lead to higher incidence of water-borne infections and toxin-related illnesses, such as cholera and shellfish poisoning. Global warming, by disrupting natural ecosystem has contributed to a very rapid movement of a growing number of disease causing viruses, bacteria, fungi and other pathogenic organisms. Baer and Singer (2009) have investigated that a temperature rise of only 3.6 F (2 C) would more than double the metabolism rate of mosquitoes, warming at this level would also expand malarias domain of active infection from 42% to 60% of the planet. Animal health may be affected by climate change in four ways: heat-related diseases and stress, extreme weather events, adaptation of animal production systems to new environments, and emergence or re-emergence of infectious diseases (Forman et al. 2008). Most vector-borne diseases exhibit a distinct seasonal pattern, which suggests that they are weather sensitive. Rainfall, temperature, and other weather variables affect in many ways both the vectors and the pathogens they transmit. For example, high temperature can increase or reduce survival rate, depending on the vector, its behavior, ecology, and many other factors (Gubler et al. 2001). 65
Climate change and animal parasites Brooks and Hoberg (2007) investigated that global climate change produces ecological perturbations, which cause geographical and phenological shifts, and alteration in the dynamics of parasite transmission, increasing the potential for host switching. The intersection of climate change with evolutionary conservative aspects of host specificity and transmission dynamics, called ecological fitting, permits emergence of parasites and diseases without evolutionary changes in their capacity for host utilization. Climate change is predicted to have important effects on parasitism and disease in freshwater and marine ecosystems. The distribution of parasites and pathogens will be directly affected by global warming, but also indirectly, through effects on host range and abundance. In general, transmission rates of parasites and pathogens are expected to increase with increasing temperature. Evidence suggests that the virulence of some pathogens and parasites may also increase with global warming (Marcogliese 2008). The effects of climate change on parasites and pathogens will be superimposed onto the effects of other anthropogenic stressors such as contaminants, habitat loss and species introductions. In the past, dengue was not found above 3300 feet above sea level because climate beyond that altitude were inhospitable to the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Today because of climatic change, dengue is found at 7200 feet in Andes in Columbia and is beginning to be indentified at even higher elevations (Baer and Singer 2009). The rift valley fever that causes abortion and death is associated with heavy rains and flooding, and this may spread by effects of global climate change. Based on studies of vector and parasite development, warming and increases in humidity are predicted to open up new arena for malaria in Africa, parasitic nematodes in the Arctic, West Nile Virus, Lyme disease in North America, and Schistosomiasis in China (Brooks and Hoberg 2007). Warmer spring conditions lead to an elevated vector host ratio, which leads to a higher prevalence level in gerbil population. Analyses showed that a temperature increase of 1.8 F (1 C) produced a 50 percent increase in prevalence of plague (Baer and Singer 2009). Increases in temperature usually lead to reduced development times for parasites that utilize poikilothermic hosts. As with many physiological processes, a 10 degree increase in temperature leads to about halving of the developmental time (Dobson and Carper 1992). This allows the parasite populations to build up rapidly following increases in temperature. Burek et al. (2008) observed that helminth parasites of terrestrial wildlife, that release eggs or free-living stages into the environment or use invertebrate intermediate hosts to complete life cycle stages, are very susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity. Larvae of helminthes like Echinococcus granulosus are transmitted to newborn pups through the milk, with adult parasites present only in 66
neonatal animals. Eggs are shed in the feces of infected pups and the larvae embryonate in the environment and are transmitted transdermally to animals of all ages. Since transmission depends on transdermal migration of free-living larvae, environmental factors such as temperature and humidity are important in the maintenance of this parasite. Egg survival is dependent on ground moisture levels, but intermediate stages survive in rodents, and its definitive hosts are typically foxes, coyotes, and dogs. Hence, distribution has become explosive due to the interaction of physical environment that is moist and cool enough to allow for egg survival and grassland landscapes that support high densities of small mammals and canine hosts (Brooks and Hoberg 2007). Furthermore, Setaria tundra nematodes have a complex life cycle where infective larvae are transmitted to ungulate hosts by mosquitoes (Culicidae) and in which many climate-related drivers play a major role (Laaksonen et al. 2010). To compensate the reduced opportunities for transmission during periods of adverse climate, parasites have evolved adaptations such as hypobiosis, the ability to remain in a state of arrested development within the protected environment provided by their hosts until transmission through the external environment proves effective. Some historical and paleontological studies of parasites suggest that host-switching behavior in parasites in response to ecological changes has been more common and global climate changes are likely to produce broadening of parasite host ranges even for long-lived, nominally specialized parasites (Brooks and Hoberg 2007). Many diseases like Lyme disease and West Nile virus are transmitted by ticks and insects in the tropics, and to a somewhat lesser extent in temperate latitudes. Temperature and humidity levels directly affect the feeding activities of these insects, as well as their reproductive success and survival. Climate can affect the reproductive success and population densities of some species, and hence can increase the probability that a zoonotic disease will spread (Dominique et al. 2005). Greater the number of the affected animals, greater the chances of contact and transmission both within and between species. Patz et al. (2000) discussed that temperature determines the rate at which mosquitoes develop into adults, the frequency of their blood feeding, the rate with which parasites are acquired and, the incubation time of the parasite within the mosquito. But these influences must be also compared with the adverse effects that high temperatures exert in reducing adult mosquito survival. The length of rainy and dry seasons and the interval between seasons affects larvae and adult vector development and abundance. Transmission of many parasitic diseases is confined to the rainy season. Rain provides the breeding sites for mosquitoes and helps create a humid environment, which prolongs the life of vectors. Brooks and Hoberg (2007) conclude that underlying the most predictions for climate change effects on parasite and pathogen distribution are the physiological 67
factors that regulate survivorship, reproduction, and transmission, and their interaction with extrinsic environmental changes associated with climate: precipitation, humidity, air and water temperature, principally. Scenarios for climate change vary latitudinally and regionally and involve direct and indirect linkages for increasing temperature and the dissemination, amplification, and invasiveness of vector-borne parasites. Harvell et al. (2002) concludes that climate warming can increase pathogen development and survival rates, disease transmission, and host susceptibility but it is also to be considered that a subset of pathogens might decline with warming, releasing hosts free from disease but causing devastating effects on ecosystems. CONCLUSION Parasites and disease will do well on a warming earth. Those species of parasite that are already common will be able to spread and perhaps colonize new susceptible hosts that may have no prior genetic resistance to them. These effects are likely to be worse in the temperate zone, where parasites from the tropics can colonize new hosts, than in the tropics, where parasites will have to adapt or evolve. Rare parasites that are adapted to extreme temperature, however, may become common; changes in the ranges and sizes of some host populations may allow some unimportant pathogens to become more widespread. Parasites are now showing serious levels of resistance to many anthelmintic drugs, and the development of vaccines is progressing more slowly than was originally anticipated. If long-term climatic changes lead to the introduction of parasites into new areas when our ability to control them is rapidly diminishing, domestic livestock will face major disease problems. Thus there is an urgent need of improved surveillance, diagnosis of these parasites in relation to climatic impacts. Analyzing the role of climate in the emergence of infectious diseases will require interdisciplinary cooperation among physicians, climatologists and biologists. Understanding climatological and ecological determinants of disease emergence and redistribution will ultimately help optimize disease preventive strategies. REFERENCES Baer, H.A. and M. Singer. 2009. Global Warming and the Political Ecology of Health: Emerging Crises and Systemic Solutions. Left Coast Press Inc, CA, USA. Brooks, D.R. and E.P. Hoberg. 2007. How will global climate change affect parasite-host assemblages? Trends in Parasitology 23:571-574. Burek, K.A., M. Frances, D. Gulland and M. Todd. 2008. Effects of climate change on arctic marine mammal health. Ecological Applications 18:S126 S134. [doi:10.1890/06-0553.1] Dobson, A. and R. Carper. 1992. Global warming and potential changes in host parasite and disease vector relationships. In: Global Warming and Biodiversity. (eds.) Peters, R.L. and T.E. Lovejoy. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. pp. 5-28. 68
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