Research Projects

Water is a crucial environmental factor affecting the distribution and growth of woody plants, and determining tree water potential during drought is essential for understanding species distribution and ecosystem characteristics. Most ecophysiological data for forest trees comes from temperate environments, where drought is primarily during the growing season. The Indian sub-continent, known for its strong seasonal rainfall pattern, has little information about water potential relations. Rising temperatures, enhanced evapo-transpiration rates, diminishing certainty regarding annual precipitation, earlier snowmelts, and increased proportion of rain to snow make trees more drought-stressed during the growing season. Water stress can be severe in tree species of the mid Himalayan range compared to treeline species. Q. floribunda, a viviparous tree species, can be severely affected by global climate change, as it is a viviparous tree. Any shifts and irregularities in monsoon rains can result in large-scale mortality of germinating seeds. The gap between the cycle of good seed year has increased by several years in this species. It is important to track cyclical events such as buds, leaves, first bloom, pollination, fertilization, and dispersal of seeds from years to years and determine how they relate to weather patterns. There is a lack of information on water relation studies of Q. floribunda in a changing climate, particularly focusing on younger individuals. The proposed study aims to assess the level of water stress different sized individuals of Q. floribunda encounter seasonally and their drought adaptation mechanisms to overcome water stress.