9404043 Singh Description: This project supports travel and field expenses for Dr. Donald Zobel of Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR and Dr. S. P. Singh of Kumaun University, Nainital, India, to collaborate in a project to study the moisture stress in Himalayan tree species under various conditions. The study has three goals: to determine the degree to which forest types in Kumaun, in the Indian central Himalaya are differentiated by their degree and seasonal pattern of moisture stress; to determine mechanism of adaptation to drought by forest trees in Kumaun forests, and; to improve general understanding of the place of water relations in physiological ecology of forest trees, by providing data from forests in a climate seldom studied, and through exchange of information among scientists working in different climates. Measurements will be made of the degree of morning moisture stress across a range of forest types from 1000-2200 m elevation, and of the components of water potential and the degree of stomatal opening, during leaf development before the wet season begins, for mature leaves during the wet season, and for mature leaves during the dry season in fall and winter. Scope: This project complements research being made in other parts in the world on different climates, and provides information, not available, for temperate areas with a wet- summer, dry winter climate, and is necessary to eliminate the regional bias in models of adaptation to water availability. The work involves close collaboration, and division of work by the U.S. and the Indian scientists. It meets the objectives of this collaboration. ***
