Community associations and ecological drivers of understory vegetation across temperate forests of Kashmir Himalayas, India

Bibliographic Data

ID19586243
AuthorsAshaq Ahmad Dar (0000-0002-7508-438X, Pondicherry University), Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy (0000-0002-3445-1980)
Year2022
Volume8
Pages100217
Publication date2022-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTrees Forests and People (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2666-7193 • E-ISSN: 2666-7193
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.tfp.2022.100217
OpenAlexW4210861809
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited84

We assessed the understory vegetation types in temperate Kashmir Himalayan coniferous forests, their species composition and what function ecological drivers execute in shaping compositional trends using a multivariate statistical approach. The agglomerative clustering analysis depicted eight discrete plant associations in terms of herb species composition with simple underlying indicator species and ecological drivers. At one extreme, we found alpine and subalpine areas (Tanacetum multicaule Sch.Bip. – Aconitum heterophyllum Wall. ex Royle – Lomatogonium caeruleum (Royle) Harry Sm. ex B.L. Burtt community (TAL)) occupying high elevations (2961.88±205.56 m) with notable species richness (6.04), while lower (2459.36±94.07 m) areas are inhabited by Thalictrum minus L. – Galium aparine L. – Achillea millefolium L. (TGA) community. The Poa pratensis L.– Senecio chrysanthemoides DC. – Clinopodium umbrosum (M.Bieb.) Kuntze (PSC) community was most diverse, supported higher species diversity (Shannon=2.22±0.07; Simpson=0.84±0.01; Fisher's α=4.51±0.30) and also exhibited a maximum number of trails crossing the plot. Canonical Correspondence analysis (CCA) examined the species-ecological interactions and displayed a significant role of most studied environmental variables in the species distribution patterns. The latter in the decreasing significance order comprised precipitation (F = 2.3; p = 0.001), latitude (F = 2.15; p = 0.001), grazing (F = 1.56; p = 0.01), longitude (F = 1.63; p = 0.013), slope (F = 1.33; p = 0.07), elevation (F = 1.32; p = 0.07), aspect (F = 0.1; p = 0.47), trails (F = 0.78; p = 0.85) and mean monthly minimum temperature (F = 1.23; p = 0.172). The variance partitioning used to evaluate the comparative significance of topographic, climatic and disturbance factors on understory vegetation composition depicted that topography (14.26%) strongly partitioned the vegetation distribution subsequently followed by climatic (11.52%) and disturbance (4.49%) factors

Biology · Botany · Canonical correspondence analysis · Canopy · Galium · Plant community · Species richness · Temperate climate · Understory · Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies · Ethnobotanical and Medicinal Plants Studies · Rangeland and Wildlife Management · Ecology

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