(SoHSS) School of Humanities and Social Sciences

<p>Shiv Nadar University is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, research-focused, and student-centric University offering a full range of academic programs at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level. With state-of-the-art infrastructure, the University comprises of academic wings, sophisticated labs, international standard sports facilities, amphitheaters, auditorium, conference rooms and smart classrooms. The University&rsquo;s goal is to become internationally recognized for the quality of its research and creative endeavors and their applicability to improving quality of life, generating new insights and expanding the boundaries of human knowledge creativity. Committed to excellence in teaching, research and service, the University aims to serve the higher education needs of India and the world beyond.</p>

Shiv Nadar University

Center for Public Affairs and Critical Theory

Current Science

For a science-based transformation of water policy

Given the reverses the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) suffered in 2014–15, it seemed likely that the programme may be shut down. However, following vehement protests both within and outside Parliament, the Government of India decided to finally throw its full weight behind the programme. Nevertheless, should not development economists address the critiques against the programme and assess whether it is really worth spending such large sums of money on it every year? This paper responds to the various facets of the critique against MGNREGA. In the very nature of our response to the critique lies a vision for the programme going ahead. Our response can be sustained only on the basis of that vision. The paper provides a detailed explanation of why we reject the fundamental critiques of MGNREGA. At the same time, we accept many of the internal critiques as extremely important. The MGNREGA may be described as “both a major success and a huge failure”. But it would be wrong, therefore, to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Rather, the key is to learn from the successes of MGNREGA through a careful analysis of the conditions that have made these successes possible. The paper ends with an outline of the unfinished agenda for MGNREGA reform, without which its true potential will continue to remain unfulfilled. © 2016, Indian Society of Labour Economics.

Indian Journal of Labour Economics

Should India do away with the MGNREGA?

This study investigates regional changes in primary producers in boreal head-water lakes during the warmer early-to-mid-Holocene (EMH) period, across the present-day boreal forest in northwest Ontario, a region that is adjacent to the prairie-forest ecotone. We quantified changes in algal abundance and composition over the Holocene period using pigments, spectrally-inferred chlorophyll a and diatom assemblages in well-dated sediment cores from three lakes. All three indicators showed a coherent pattern of enhanced primary producers in two of the study lakes (Gall Lake and Lake 239) during the EMH, whereas only diatom assemblages suggested higher levels of nutrients in Meekin Lake. Overall, this study supports a regional pattern of enhanced primary producers during the EMH, likely as a function of lower water-levels and warmer temperatures. Elevated concentrations of cyanobacterial pigments also occurred in two of the three lakes during the EMH, whereas pigments from purple-sulphur bacteria provide evidence of enhanced deep-water anoxia in one lake. These findings suggest that future climatic warming in boreal regions could include regional eutrophication and associated increases in cyanobacteria. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

World University root node

Quaternary Science Reviews

Enhanced algal abundance in northwest Ontario (Canada) lakes during the warmer early-to mid-Holocene period

Boreal regions and their freshwater ecosystems may be susceptible to future climate change under projected warmer conditions. Northwest Ontario is a boreal region adjacent to the climatically sensitive prairie-forest ecotone (PFE). Pollen records spanning the Holocene from near the Manitoba/Ontario border to lakes up to ~300 km east of the PFE indicate a warmer and possibly wetter mid-Holocene period across northwest Ontario from ~8000 to 4500 cal. yr BP. To date, only one Holocene-scale record of changes in effective moisture, as indicated through diatom-inferred changes in lake level (Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) Lake 239), is available from this region. Our study expands the regional context of Holocene climate changes, with the analysis of diatom assemblages in sediment cores from two additional lakes, which span a distance of over 200 km across the present-day boreal forest, from 80 km west of ELA Lake 239 to ~150 km to the northeast. In cores from both lakes, benthic taxa predominate in the early-to-mid-Holocene period, with a low abundance of planktonic taxa, suggesting lower lake levels by ~2–5 m. Increases in the abundance of planktonic taxa to >50% occurred in both lakes beginning ~4500–4000 cal. yr BP suggesting positive water balance over the last 4000 years in comparison with the mid-Holocene period. This new evidence supports a regional mid-Holocene period of aridity, with reduced water levels across the boreal region of northwest Ontario. If future climate change results in lower effective moisture, then conditions could become similar to the mid-Holocene period aridity, leading to real challenges for the management of water resources across the region. © The Author(s) 2015.

Fulltext

Holocene

Diatom-based evidence of regional aridity during the mid-Holocene period in boreal lakes from northwest Ontario (Canada)

We investigated the modern distribution of fossil midges within a dimictic lake and explored downcore patterns of inferred lake depths over the last 2000. years from previously published proxies. Modern midge distribution within Gall Lake showed a consistent and predictable pattern related to the lake-depth gradient with recognizable assemblages characteristic of shallow-water, mid-depth and profundal environments. Interpretations of downcore changes in midge assemblages, in conjunction with quantitative lake-depth inferences across a priori defined (based on diatom data) ~. 500-yr wet and dry periods, demonstrated that both invertebrate and algal assemblages exhibited similar timing and nature of ecological responses. Midges were quantified by their relative abundance, concentrations and an index of Chaoborus to chironomids, and all showed the greatest differences between the wet and dry periods. During the low lake-level period of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA: AD 900 to 1400), profundal chironomids declined, shallow-water and mid-depth chironomids increased, chironomid-inferred lake level declined and the Chaoborus-to-chironomid index decreased. The coherence between multiple trophic levels provides strong evidence of lower lake levels in Gall Lake during the MCA. © 2013 University of Washington.