Vegetation dynamics of chir pine forests along altitudinal gradient in Giri catchment of Himachal Pradesh
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Date
2013
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YSPU
Abstract
The present investigation entitled “Vegetation dynamics of Chir pine forests along altitudinal gradient in Giri catchment of Himachal Pradesh” was carried out in Giri catchment, a component of Giri-Bata catchment in Himachal Pradesh located between 30o 33¢ 48² and 31o 16¢ 08² N latitude and 77o 02¢ 32² to 77o 38¢ 22² E longitude. This catchment is distributed in Shimla, Sirmaur and Solan districts of Himachal Pradesh and is comprised of 135 subwatersheds. The climatic condition of experimental sites ranges from tropical/sub-tropical through sub-humid to sub-temperate climate and clay to sandy soils. In each experimental site three sample plots of size 0.1 ha for trees, two plots of 10mx10m were marked to study shrubs and in each sample
plot, 6 quadrates of 50cmx50cm were harvested to study herbs characteristics. Composition, density (plants/ha), basal area (m2/ha), biomass (q/ha), carbon stock (q/ha) of different vegetation layers and soil properties of grasslands and Chir pine forests for herb and shrub layers were analyzed in 42 experimental sites of 14 representative subwatersheds during 2010-2011. The data were analyzed by using factorial RBD, Duncan test, variability analysis through statistical techniques viz., measures of dispersion, Bertlett’s test of significance and TWINSPAN, whereas cluster analysis was carried out by CAP (Version 4.0) software. The
floristic composition comprised of 4%, 5%, 7%, 21%, 25%, and 38% trees , sedges, legumes, grasses, shrubs and forbs respectively under Chir pine forest. However, grasslands consist of 7% sedges, 8% legumes, 25% grasses, 27% shrubs and 33% forbs. Herbage density (tillers/m2) in grasslands ranged form 926.65-1445.34, 851.32-1256.03 and 603.33-1128.01 for E1 (900-1300m), E2 (1300- 1700m) and E3 (1700-2100m) at different Silting Yield Index (SYI). The E1C1 (1295.58) reported significantly higher herbage
density of grasslands than others. In Chir pine forests, the herbage density varied from 744.00 to 1279.34, 609.34 to 1086.65 and 420.68 to 827.99 for E1, E2 and E3, respectively at different SYI classes. The herbage density in Chir pine forests was significantly higher at E1C1 than other interactions. The shrub density varied from 1666.67 to 2866.67, 1300.00 to 2399.99 and 1466.67 to 2699.99 in grasslands, whereas, 2300.01 to 5066.67, 1466.67 to 4199.99 and 1400.01 to 3400.00 in Chir pine forests for E1, E2 and E3, respectively at different SYI classes. Herbage basal area (cm2/m2) varied from 40.10 to 56.01, 36.34 to 49.61, 25.21 to 45.93 in grasslands and 32.81 to 54.09, 28.27 to 49.39, 18.56 to 37.43 in Chir pine forest for E1, E2 and E3, respectively at different SYI classes. The shrub basal area (m2/ha) varied from 0.137 to 1.719, 0.136 to 0.685, 0.383 to 1.632 in grasslands and 0.240 to 2.338, 0.181 to 1.136, 0.299 to 2.223 in Chir pine forests for E1, E2, E3, respectively at different SYI classes. The C. montanus at E1 (IVI=
116.98) and E2 ( IVI=146.65), while, H. contortus, at E3 (IVI= 118.02) were dominant herbage species in grasslands. In Chir pine forests, dominant species was T. anathera with IVI 155.46, 186.77 and 180.68 at E1, E2 and E3, respectively. In grasslands the dominant shrub species at E1 was C. carandus, at E2 was M. africana while, at E3 was B. lycium. In Chir pine forests, M. africana at E1 and C. carandus at E2 while B. lycium at E3 were the dominant shrub species. The aboveground, belowground and total herbage
biomass for were (28.44 to 46.13, 21.37 to 43.23, 14.75 to 41.80), (15.61 to 27.93, 11.11 to 27.87, 7.39 to 27.53) and (44.05 to 70.29, 32.48 to 68.17, 22.14 to 61.59) at E1, E2 and E3, respectively in grasslands. In Chir pine forests, the aboveground (23.25 to 44.07, 18.58 to 42.14, 18.02 to 37.75), belowground (11.96 to 22.01, 9.15 to 19.57, 7.95 to 17.70) and total herbage biomass (35.21 to 66.08, 27.73 to 61.33, 26.30 to 54.17) for E1, E2 and E3 were recorded. The shrub aboveground (4.621 to 9.884, 3.699 to 7.212, 3.741 to 9.302), belowground (0.969 to 3.184, 0.550 to 2.163, 0.757 to 2.197) and total (5.75 to 11.70, 4.59 to 8.83 and 4.56 to 11.50) biomass were recorded in grasslands for E1, E2 and E3. In Chir pine forests at E1, E2 and E3, shrub biomass for aboveground (9.295 to 19.810, 4.538 to 11.838, 5.469 to 18.018), belowground (1.151 to 3.972, 0.768 to 3.405, 0.940 to 3.125) and total (9.82 to 23.78, 6.11 to 14.16 and 6.71 to 21.14) were recorded. Average total biomass was highest at E2 (1399.04) as compared to E1 (1244.92) and E3 (1000.43). Total carbon stock (herb+shrub+soil) in grassland ranged from 308.69 to 520.16, 380.70 to 539.17, 429.75 to 550.27 for E1, E2 and E3, respectively. In Chir pine forests, the total carbon stock (herb+shrub+tree+soil) varied from 964.80 to 1263.58, 1138.69 to 1305.66, and 828.27 to 1170.01 for E1, E2 and E3, respectively at different SYI classes. The soil pH in grassland varied from 5.99 to 7.71, 6.03 to 7.56 and 6.17 to 7.68 whereas, in Chir pine forests 5.94 to 7.01, 5.91 to 6.93 and 6.23 to 6.84 at E1, E2 and E3, respectively. In grasslands, the bulk density was 1.06 to 1.22, 1.03 to 1.19 and 0.95 to 1.15, while, in Chir
pine forests, 1.00 to 1.22, 0.96 to 1.12 and 0.93 to 1.05. In grassland SOC varied from 1.16 to 2.29, 1.52 to 2.47 and 1.81 to 2.75 whereas, at Chir pine forests it ranged from 1.68 to 2.48, 1.96 to 2.84 and 2.33 to 2.84 at E1, E2 and E3, respectively.
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Keywords
coniferous forests, biomass, grasslands, area, carbon, land resources, altitude, planting, yields, wood