份lia Forests in Garhwal Himalayas
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For. Stud. China, 2012, 14(4): 268-275 DOI 1O.1007/s11632-012-0409-6 I Forest structure, diversity and regeneration in unburnt and burnt Anogeissus lat份, lia forests in Garhwal Himalayas Munesh KUMARl*, Jahangeer A. BHATI, G. S. RAJWAR2 I Department ofForestry and Natura! Resources, HNB Garhwa! University, Srinagar Garhwa!, Uttarakhand 249161 , India 2 Department ofBotany, Govemment Post Graduate Col1ege, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand 249201 , India 。 Be司 ing Forestry University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heide!berg 2012 Abstract The present study was carried out at two different gradients of unbumt and bumt Anogeissus latifolia forest sites in the Garhwal region, India. At each gradient, the unbumt and bumt forest sites were further categorized into three different e!evations, i.e. , !ower (700 m), midd!e (850 m) and upper (1 000 m). At each e!evation, the density oftrees, saplings and seedlings was higher at the unbumt sites except for 仕ees at the upper e!evation which was higher at the bumt sites. The tota! basa! area of each !ayer of for est was a!so higher at the unbumt sites. The study revea!ed that the !ower number of saplings and seed!ings at the bumt forest sites might be due to the effect of fire. Most trees in the !ower dbh classes were affected by forest fire at the bumt sites which reduced the tota! density and tota! basa! area of the trees comp缸'ed to the unbumt sites. The diversity oftrees increased with increasing e!evation. However, the diversity of sap!ings and seedlings reduced with increasing e!evation. Key words Anogeissus latifolia, unbumt and bumt forest, e!evationa! gradient, diversi纱" regeneration 1 Introduction of plant succession. It is reported that 6 million km2 of forest have already been lost around the wor1d in less The vegetation of Himalayan forests ranges from than 200 years mainly due to forest fires (Dimopoulou tropical dry deciduous forests in the foothil1s to alpine and Giannikos, 2002). meadows above the timber1ine. Vegetation is the out Most forest fires are caused by human activities come of habitat, environmental conditions and exist and natural factors such as lightning sparks and fal1- ing biotic effects. In the Himalayan region, forest fires ing boulders. Most forest fires are set intentionally occur every year, affecting fiora, fauna, human liveli for land conversion and timber harvesting; socio-eco hoods and the local c1imate. Forest fires cause major nomic conf1icts over questions of property and land damage to the environment, health and property and use rights inc1ude deforestation (conversion of forest are increasingly receiving public attention global1y to other land uses, e.g. agricul阳re and pasture), use of during the last few years, due to their significant short non-wood forest products (using fire to facilitate har and long-term threats to forest ecosystems. The natu vest or improve yield of plants, fruits and other forest ral fire regimes in the dry deciduous forests of India products), management of grazing lands (自由 s set by are not wel1 known, but it is suggested that deciduous grazers), settlement fires (fires from settlements, e.g. forest communities do not evolve with fire as selec 企om cooking, torches and camp fires) and traditional tion pressure (Tumer et al., 1997; Menke and Muir, uses of fire (in the wake of religious and ethnic tradi 2004). However, anthropogenic fires cause forests to tions and tribal warfare). Large wildfires can eliminate tum into savannas, open their canopies and reduce for al1 the existing vegetation cover and may alter plant est stature (Vitousek et al., 1996; Keeley et al., 2003; community composition by providing ideal habitats Kuenzi et al., 2008). The ecological role of fire is to for non-native species (Keeley et 乱, 2003). Forest fire affect several aspects, suchas plant community de is a primary process affecting vegetation composition velopment, water conservation, soil nutrient recyc1ing and structure, which helps to shape the landscape mo and biological diversity. Forest fires are considered saic and affect biogeochemical cyc1es, i.e., the carbon vital natural processes that initiate the natural exercise cyc1e. Forest structure and composition, now and in .Author for correspondence. E-mail: [email protected] Munesh KUMAR et al.: Forest structure, diversity and regeneration in unbumt and bumt... 269 the past, are affected by fire regimes (Heinselman, unbumt and bumt A. latifolia forests. 1973; Wright and Bailey, 1982). Some parts of the Himalayan region are facing ma jor threats of forest fires annually. In the sub-tropical 2 Materials and methods parts of Garhwal Himalaya, Anogeissus latifolia for ests occasionally come under threat of forest fires, but 2.1 Studyarea wherever these forests grow close to Pinus roxburghii forests, they remain under threat of fire and sometimes The study was carried out in the Srinagar va11ey of the incur severe damage. As an agent of disturbance ,自由 Tehri Garhwal district, Uttarakhand. Geographi印ca剖11忖yf plays an important role in Pinus roxburghii, Picea the study area is situated between 30 。叮13'26 spinulosa and Pinus wallichiana forests (McKinnell, 78 0 48'10"咀E in the Gar由hwa剖1 Himalayan region, in the 2000), especially when these forests are located on dry northem part of Srinagar city, India (Fig. 1). The area sites. Pure stands of P wallichiana and P roxburghii is dominated by A. latifolia trees and the surrounding forests are destroyed by fire eve可 year. So far no 自由 peaks are covered by Pinus roxburghii forests, form studies have been carried out in A. latifolia forests in ing transitional boundaries where both forests are the Garhwal region. Therefore, we made an attempt mixed. A. latifolia is commonly found in dry as we11 to understand the effect of fire on A. latifolia forests as moist deciduous forests and grows on a variety of with the objectives: i) forest structure and diversity soils ranging from dry sandy loam, over1ying boul of unbumt and bumt A. lati声 lia forests at different ders and infertile kankar soils to deep moist loams elevations and ii) the regeneration of species in these (Luna, 2005). The soils of the area are we11 drained 78"O'O"E 79户。 '0'古巴 80.0 。吧 剧。0'0吧 U忧arakhand 780 0'0''E 78 0 20'0"E 78 0 40'0"E 790 0'0'军 A 30'50'0'1叶 300 40'0"N 300 30'0''N 广〉 Tehri Garhwal 30'20'0'1证 300 10'0'吁吁 30 0 0'0''N 10 20 40km Fig. 1 Map of study area 270 Forestry Studies in China, Vo1.l 4, No.4, 2012 and acidic in nature. The study region has a monsoon (middle) and 1000 m (upper). In order to compare the type of climate with three differently marked seasons burnt forest sites with unburnt forest sites at the same (summer, rainy and winter) in a year. The mean an elevations (Figs. 2C & 2D), we selected unburnt sites nual temperature in this region varies between 10 0 C for vegetation analysis. and 23 0 C and the mean January temperature between 100 C and 15 0 巳 Total annual precipitation is 960 mm (Sheikh et al., 2011). The forest is under high levels of 2.2 Vegetation analysis anthropogenic pressure; if the rate of forest exploita tion remains constant the forest may be replaced by The vegetation analysis was carried out in a sub other species (Kumar et al., 2010). tropical forest of the Garhwal Himalayas, dominated To assess the effect of fire on vegetation, the total by A. latifolia and associated with Acacia catechu and burnt forest area (Figs. 2A & 2B) was categorized into Lannea coromandelica. A total of 10 quadrats (each of three different elevations, i.e. , 700 m (lower), 850 m 10m x 10m in size) were selected randomly at each B Fig. 2 Burnt forest sites (A, B) and unbumt forest sites (C , D) of study area Munesh KUMAR et al.: Forest structure, diversity and regeneration in unbumt and bumt... 271 elevation. The size and number of quadrats were de the unbumt site. The distribution pattem of A. latifolia termined by the species-area curve (Misra, 1968) and was contagious and Acacia catechu was distributed the running mean method (Kershaw, 1973). In each randomly at each elevation. Aegle marmelos was quadrat the trees were categorized as seedling (height distributed contagiously at the lower elevation, while < 20 cm), sapling (height 20-150 cm) and tree (dbh > Aegle marmelos and Lannea coromandelica were ran 10 cm at 1. 37 m from the ground). The vegetation data domly distributed at the upper elevation. were analyzed as described by Curtis and McIntosh In the bumt site, A. latifolia was the dominant tree (1 950) and the relative values ofthe importance value at all three elevations. The maximum density was index (IVI) by Curtis (1 959). The ratio of abundance 1110, 870 and 980 plants'ha-' for A. lat伪 lia at the to frequency (A/F ratio) was used to represent the dis lower, middle and upper elevations, respectively. The tribution pa忧em (Whitfo时, 1949). This ratio indicates total basal area was also higher for A. latifolia at lower 2 I 2 l regular distribution if it is < 0.025, random if between (6.780 m 'ha- ) , upper (8.900 m 'ha- ) and middle 2 l 0.025-0.050 and contagious if> 0.050. The diversity (2 .490 m 'ha- ) elevations. The distribution pattem of (H) was ca1culated for each stratum (tree, sapling and all species at the lower elevation was contagious. At seedling), using density data as per Shannon and Wie the middle elevation, A. latifolia and Lannea coro ner (1 963): mandelica were distributed contagiously and Acacia S 艾1η i.