STUDIES ON THE PRODUCTIVE POTENTIAL AND CONSERVATION STRATEGY OF MAJOR RANGE GRASSES IN THE DEGRADING RANGE LANDS OF CHOLISTAN DESERT By MUHAMMAD RAFAY M.sc (Hons.) FORESTRY A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN FORESTRY DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY, RANGE MANAGEMENT AND WILDLIFE FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FAISALABAD PAKISTAN 2012 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the contents of the thesis “Studies on the productive potential and conservation strategy on the major range grasses in degrading rangelands of Cholistan desert” are the product of my own research and no part has been copied from any published source (except the references, standard mathematical or genetic models/ equations/ formulae/ protocols etc). I further declare that this work has not been submitted for award of any other degree/ diploma. The University may take action if the information provided is found inaccurate at any stage. In case of any fault, the scholar will be proceeded against as per HEC plagiarism policy. MUHMMAD RAFAY 2001-ag-1152 The Controller of Examination, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. We, the Supervisory Committee, certify that the contents and form of the thesis submitted by Mr. Muhammad Rafay (Reg. No. 2001-ag-1152) have been found satisfactory and recommend that it be processed for evaluation by External Examiner(s) for the award of degree. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE 1. Chairman ---------------------------------------------- (Prof. Dr. Rashid Ahmad Khan) 2. Member ---------------------------------------------- (Dr. Shahid Yaqoob) 3. Member ----------------------------------------------- (Prof. Dr. Munir Ahmad) DEDICATION To My Affable Father A symbol of success for me, Always behave me like a friend Whose mature, valuable, guidance, Financial assistance, enabled me to perceive and pursue higher ideas in life My Adorable Mother A minerate of love, affection, and kindness Who enlightened me A learning spirit I am learning much From her lap till now. My Svelte Brothers and Sisters Whose prayers, sympathies, Stress my way towards success Whatever am I Due to the efforts of All my family I am for them They are for me I have a great gratitude and pride for them Whose hands always rose in prayers for me ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Though only my name appears on the cover of this dissertation, a great many people have contributed to its production. I owe my gratitude to all those people who have made this dissertation possible and because of whom my doctoral experience has been one that I will cherish forever. Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof. Dr. Rashid A Khan, Professor, Dept. of Forestry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad for the continuous support of my Ph.D. study and research, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my Ph.D. study. His insightful comments and constructive criticisms at different stages of my research were thought provoking and they helped me focus my ideas. I am grateful to him for holding me to a high research standard and enforcing strict validations for each research result, and thus teaching me how to do research. Dr. Shahid Yaqoob and Prof. Dr. Munir Ahmad deserve special thanks as my thesis committee members. I have no words to explain my obligation to for their help during all the research work. From the core of my heart, I am thankful to Late Dr. Muhammad Arshad, Director, Cholistan Institute of Desert Studies, Bahawalpur for his valuable contribution during sampling. To say that his time with us was far too short will be an understatement. The reality is that all who loved and knew him will sorely miss him. He was a remarkable man and great scientist, we all are very fortunate for having known him. He is kind, honest and a man of great honor, strength & integrity. May God rest his soul in peace (Ameen). I have lucky enough to have the support of many good friends. Life would not have been the same without my classmates. Many friends have helped me stay sane through these difficult years. I thank my friends for their stimulating discussions, for the sleepless nights we were working together before deadlines, and for all the fun, we have had in the last four years. Especially, I need to express my gratitude and deep appreciation to Muhammad Abdullah, whose friendship, hospitality, knowledge, and wisdom have supported, enlightened, and entertained me over the many years of our friendship. He has consistently helped me keep perspective on what is important in life and shown me how to deal with reality. Imran Sattar, Muhammad Aslam farooqi and Sohail Akhtar also deserve special thanks for their love, patience and understanding, and the assurance that the taxpayers wanted me to get back to work. Most importantly, none of this would have been possible without the love and patience of my family. My deepest gratitude goes to my family for their unflagging love and support throughout my life; this dissertation is simply impossible without them. I am indebted to my father for his care and love. I cannot ask for more from my mother, as she is simply perfect. I have no suitable word that can fully describe her everlasting love to me. Last, but not any acknowledgement could never adequately express my obligation to loving sisters and sweet brothers for their moral inspiration and guidance, who always motivated me to carry myself through the noble ideas of life. I am thankful to them who shared my happiness, and made me happy. MUHAMMAD RAFAY LIST OF CONTENTS CHAPTER TITLE PAGE NO. LIST OF FIGURES 5 LIST OF TABLES 6 LIST OF PLATES 7 LIST OF APPENDICES 7 ABBREVIATIONS 8 ABSTRACT 10 1 INTRODUCTION 11 1.1 BACKGROUND 11 1.2 OBJECTIVES 14 1.2.1 GENERAL OBJECTIVE 14 1.2.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES 14 1.3 REFERENCES 15 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 18 2.1 FLORISTIC COMPOSITION 18 2.2 PHYTOSOCIOLOGY 19 2.2.1 PLANT COMMUNITIES 19 2.2.2 MULTIVARIATE STUDY 23 2.3 BIOMASS PRODUCTION 25 2.4 CARRYING CAPACITY 27 2.5 PALATABILITY CLASSIFICATION 29 2.6 NUTRITIONAL EVALUATION OF GRASSES 30 2.6.1 PROXIMATE ANALYSIS 30 2.6.2 FIBER CONSTITUENTS 33 2.6.3 MINERAL COMPOSITION 35 2.6.3.1 MACRO-MINERALS 36 2.6.3.1 MICRO-MINERALS 38 2.7 REFERENCES 41 3 STUDY AREA 61 3.1 GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION 61 3.2 CLIMATE 61 1 3.3 EDAPHALOGY 61 3.4 VEGETATION 62 3.5 FAUNA 63 3.6 WATER RESOURCES 63 3.7 REFERENCES 64 4 MATERIALS AND METHODS 67 4.1 RECONNAISSANCE SURVEY 67 4.2 FLORISTIC COMPOSITION 67 4.2.1 LIFE FORM 67 4..2.2 PHENOLOGY 69 4.2.3 ECONOMIC USE CLASSIFICATION 69 4.3 PHYTOSOCIOLOGICAL STUDY 69 4.3.1 SITE SELECTION AND VEGETATION SAMPLING 69 4.3.2 PHYTOSOCIOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES 70 4.3.2.1 IMPORTANCE VALUE 71 4.3.2.2 COMMUNITY STRUCTURE 72 4.3.3 MULTIVARIATE STUDY 72 4.3.4 GPS DATA 73 4.4 PHYSIO-CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF SOIL 73 4.4.1 SOIL TEXTURE 73 4.4.2 SATURATION PERCENTAGE 73 4.4.3 pH AND ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY 73 4.4.4 MOISTURE CONTENT AND ORGANIC MATTER 73 4.4.5 SODIUM (Na) AND POTASSIUM (K) 74 4.4.6 AVAILABLE PHOSPHORUS 74 4.5 BIOMASS PRODUCTION OF RANGE GRASSES 74 4.6 CARRYING CAPACITY 74 4.7 PALATABILITY CLASSIFICATION 75 4.8 NUTRITIONAL EVALUATION OF SELECTED 75 GRASSES 4.8.1 PROCUREMENT OF SAMPLES 75 4.8.2 PROXIMATE ANALYSIS 75 2 4.8.3 FIBER CONSTITUENTS 76 4.8.4 MINERAL COMPOSITION 76 4.8.5 DATA ANALYSIS 76 4.9 REFERENCES 77 5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 80 5.1 FLORISTIC COMPOSITION AND DIVERSITY 80 5.1.1 RESULTS 80 5.1.2 DISCUSSION 83 5.1.3 PHENOLOGY 85 5.1.3.1 RESULTS 85 5.1.3.2 DISCUSSION 87 5.1.4 ECONOMIC USE CLASSIFICATION 92 5.1.4.1 RESULTS 92 5.1.4.2 DISCUSSION 93 5.2 PHYTOSOCIOLOGY 94 5.2.1 COMMUNITY STRUCTURE 94 5.2.2 RESULTS 94 5.2.3 DISCUSSION 104 5.2.4 MULTIVARIATE STUDY 107 5.2.4.1 RESULTS 107 5.2.4.2 DISCUSSION 113 5.3 BIOMASS PRODUCTION OF GRASSES 116 5.3.1 RESULTS 116 5.3.2 DRY SEASON BIOMASS PRODUCTION 116 5.3.3 WET SEASON BIOMASS PRODUCTION 116 5.3.4 DISCUSSION 118 5.4 CARRYING CAPACITY 121 5.4.1 RESULTS 121 5.4.2 DRY SEASON CARRYING CAPACITY 121 5.4.3 WET SEASON CARRYING CAPACITY 121 5.4.4 DISCUSSION 122 5.5 PALATABILITY CLASSIFICATION 126 3 5.5.1 RESULTS 126 5.5.2 DISCUSSION 128 5.6 NUTRIONAL EVALUATION OF SELECTED 131 GRASS SPECIES 5.6.1 PROXIMATE ANALYSIS 131 5.6.1.1 RESULTS 131 5.6.1.2 DISCUSSION 133 5.6.2 FIBER CONSTITUENTS 135 5.6.2.1 RESULTS 135 5.6.2.2 DISCUSSION 137 5.6.3 MINERAL COMPOSITION 139 5.6.3.1 RESULTS 139 5.6.3.2 DISCUSSION 142 5.7 REFERENCES 149 6 SUMMARY AND CONSERVATION STRATEGY 171 6.1 SUMMARY 171 6.2 CONSERVATION STRATEGEY 173 6.2.1 IN-SITU CONSERVATION STRATEGY 173 6.2.2 EX-SITU CONSERVATION STRATEGY 176 6.3 REFERENCES 179 4 LIST OF FIGURES FIG. NO. TITLE PAGE NO. 4.1 MAP OF CHOLISTAN DESERT SHOWING STUDY SITES 68 4.2 LAYOUT OF PHYTOSOCIOLOGICAL STUDY 70 5.1 LIFE FORM SPECTRUM OF GRASS SPECIES 80 5.2 ABUNDANCE OF GRASS SPECIES IN CHOLISTAN DESERT 81 5.3 LIFE SPAN OF GRASS SPECIES 81 5.4 PHENOLOGICAL PATTERNS OF GRASS SPECIES 87 5.5 ECONOMIC USE CLASSIFICATIONS OF RANGE GRASSES 92 5.6 DENDOGRAM SHOWING DIFFERENT VEGETATION GROUPS 110 5.7 DCA ORDINATION OF STANDS, USING SPECIES DATA OF 20 STANDS 111 5.8 CORELATION OF VEGETATION GROUPS WITH ENVIROMENTAL 112 VARIABLES 5.9 SEASONAL MEAN DRY BIOMASS AT THREE RANGE HABITATS 117 5.10 SESAONAL TOTAL BIOMASS PRODUCTION AT THREE HABITATS 117 5.11 SESONAL CARRYING CAPACITY AT THREE RANGE HABITATS 122 5.12 PALATABILITY CLASSES OF GRASS SPECIES 126 5.13 CLASSIFICATION OF GRASSES ON THE BASIS PARTS USED AND 127 ANIMAL PREFRENCES 5 LIST OF TABLES TABLE NO.