Spatial distributian of plants in the Temperate forest grazing lands of Garhwal Himalaya, India
*Smriti Kukshal and Sarika 2Maheshwari
Assistant Professor 1Department of Botany, Harsh Vidya Mandir P.G. College, Raisi, Haridwar-247671 India *Corresponding Author: email: *sharmavpooja@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
The forest floor vegetation under different forests were used as grazing grounds particularly in Himalayas. Some of the contributing factors to the formation of grasslands included unrestricted cutting of trees for fuelwood and foliage food, the deliberate ground vegetation burning, animals grazing, and the harvesting of ground vegetation for use as forage. The objective of current study was aimed to analyze spatial distribution of plant existence in the temperate forest grazing lands of Garhwal Himalaya. Field survey was carried out in order to collect plants from the four study sites at an altitude of 1000msl -1500msl in the year 2014. The region was full of Pinus canopy with Capillepedium parviflorum grass in dominance. The majority of the living forms were herbaceous, followed by shrubs and trees. Perennating organs or buds position from the ground surface is used for studying life form pattern. The life-form pattern observations revealed a greater presence of therophytes (45) than hemi-cryptophytes (26). Therophytes act as markers for the level of biotic impact present in the ecosystem. The dominance of therophytes seems partially due to biotic stress as well as occasional burning. The species’ distribution pattern was assessed by employing the A: F species value. In current study, most of the species showed contiguous dispersion, followed by random distribution across all seasons and sites. As a result of excessive exploitation of forests for essential resources, there is a growing commitment to safeguard, manage, and enhance the productivity of these forest grazing lands.