Forest Vegetation and Dendrochronology of Gilgit, Astore and Skardu Districts of Northern Areas (Gilgit-Baltistan), Pakistan By MUHAMMAD AKBAR Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Moinuddin Ahmed Co-Supervisor Dr. Muhammad Faheem Siddiqui A thesis submitted to the Graduate Research and Management Council in partial fulfillment for the degree of doctor of Philosophy 2013 Laboratory of Dendrochronology and Plant Ecology, Department of Botany, Federal Urdu University of Arts Science and Technology, Karachi-75300, Pakistan i Federal Urdu University of Arts, Sciences & Technology Gulshan­E­Iqbal Karachi Department Of Botany CERTIFICATE Certified that Mr. Muhammad Akbar was enrolled for the program M.Phil leading to Ph.D. He has passed the required course work successfully and fulfilled all the criteria of Higher Education Commission (HEC) for the degree of doctorate. The dissertation titled “Forest vegetation and Dendrochronology of Gilgit, Astore and Skardu Districts of Northern Areas (Gilgit­ Baltistan), Pakistan” submitted by him is satisfactory and confide for the partial requirement of the award of Doctor of Philosophy degree. -------------------------------------- ----------------------------------- Supervisor Co-Supervisor Prof. Dr. Moinuddin Ahmed Dr. Muhammad Faheem Siddiqui (Foreign Professor) (Assistant Professor) Department of Botany University of Karachi ii DEDICATION DEDICATED TO KACHO HABIBULLAH KHAN (SHAHEED) AND MY STEP UNCLE MUHAMMAD IBRAHIM iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special admiration and thanks goes to Prof. Dr Moinuddin Ahmad for his kind supervision, constant encouragement, continuous moral support, valuable comments, guidance, constructive criticism, encouragement and suggestions throughout the felid and laboratory work and thesis writing which made me able to complete my research on “Forest vegetation and Dendrochronology of Gilgit, Astore and Skardu Districts of Northern Areas (Gilgit-Baltistan), Pakistan”. I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to Prof. Dr. Syed Shahid Shaukat who guided me very kindly during the different phases of my research work, especially during statistical and multivariate analysis. I am also grateful to Chairperson, Dept of Botany and the other faculty members for their cooperation and support. Sincere thanks are due to all my seniors especially Dr. Muhammad Faheem Siddiquii, Dr. Muhammad Wahab, Dr. Toqeer Ahmed Rao, Dr. Kanwal Nazim, Dr. Muhammad Uzair Khan, Dr. Nasrullah Khan, kindness, guidance and the doctoral students Alamdar Hussain, Faisal Hussain, Muhammad Usama Zafar, Hina Zafar, Shahina Arshad Khan, Farzana Usman, Jawaria Sultana and Tuba for their cooperation and moral support during this study. My deepest gratitude goes to my beloved parents Haji Abdullah, and Bano for their endless love, prayers and my brothers Mushtaq Hussain, Zahid Hussain, Sajjad Hussain, Muhammad Hasan, for their continuous financial support and encouragement. Also I am much thankful to all my family members, particularly Muhammad Asgher, Zakwat Hussain, Tariq Aziz, Manzoor Hussain, Habibullah, Sakhawat Hussain and Kamal Hussain for their moral support throughout my academic period. I would like to pay many heartiest thanks and appreciation to my beloved wife Ms. Shazia Batool for her tolerance and patience to during a large span of time during the doctoral work and also for her love and care of the kids during the period when I could not devote time to my family. I especially thank and pay gratitude to Prof Dr. Ghulam Mehdi (Life trustee and Chairman Education Fund), Afzal Ali Shigri (Managing Director), Fazil Ali (Regional Managing director) Muzafar Hussain (Managing trustee) and Muhammad Jaffar (Finance iv officer) of Marafie Foundation Pakistan to facilitate my monetary grant for the period of my research. I would like to pay heartiest gratitude to Muhammad Ismail Zafar (Conservator of Forest Gilgit Region) to encourage and appreciate each and every step during my filed work. It would have been almost impossible to collect data from the high altitudinal remote forested area without his kind cooperation and provision of field facilities, transport and equipment. I am also grateful to Mr. Mayoor Khan Program Manager Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to provide financial grant in terms of internship for one year and provide logistic support during the field trip of Gilgit and Astore. My thanks also go to Muhammad Jamil, Chairman Mountain Conservation Developmental Program (MCDP) and Babar Khan Head (WWF) World Wide Fund for nature Gilgit-Baltistan to make available logistic support and facilitation during field works of Gilgit and Astore District. I would like to thanks all Laboratory staff especially Mr. Syed Azhar Kazmi who helped me in the problems related to computer. In this study identification of plant species was the initial step. Dr. Sher Wali Khan Assistant Professor of Biological Science Department, Karakorum International University (KIU), an excellent taxonomist, identified all the plant species recorded and collected during the sampling. To him I extend my special thanks. I would like to appreciate and thank to Mr. Muhammad Askari lecturer at F.G Boys Degree College Skardu and Mr. Muhammad Ali (forester Kharmang Oliding), Muhammad Ayoub (Forester Basho) for their kind support and cooperation during field work in Skardu District. The deepest thanks go to all my friends specially Syed Hasan Rizvi, Syed Najm-u- Hasan, Illyas Habib, Fida Ali, Anwer Hussain, Kamran Haider, Muhammad Ali Gasingi, Muhammad Raza, Muhammad Ali Shigri, Musa Ali, Mehdi Hasan, Muhammad Kazim, Muhammad Ibarhim, Ashraf Hussain, Khadim Hussain, Ajaz Haider, Engineer Shabbir Hussain, Nazir Hussain and Irfan Haider for their constant encouragement and worthy support. Muhammad Akbar v TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate………………………………………………………………….. II Dedication…………………………………………………………………. III Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………. IV Table of contents…………………………………………………………... VI List of tables……………………………………………………………….. XVI List of figures……………………………………………………………… XIX List of appendices…………………………………………………………. XXIV Abstract in Urdu…………………………………………………………… XXVI Abstract……………………………………………………………………. XXVIII CHAPTER-1 GERNAL INTRODUCTION 1.1- Introduction…………………………………………………………… 1 1.1.1-Montane dry sub tropical scrub zone……………………………... 1 1.1.2-Dry alpine zones and permanent snowfields……………………... 1 1.1.3-Alpine meadows and alpine scrub zone………………………….. 1 1.1.4-Sub-alpine scrub zone…………………………………………….. 2 1.1.5-Dry temperate coniferous forest………………………………….. 2 1.1.6-Dry temperate evergreen Oak scrub……………………………… 2 1.2-Profile of study area…………………………………………………… 6 1.2.1-Geography………………………………………………………… 6 1.2.2-Geology…………………………………………………………… 8 1.2.4-Biodiversity……………………………………………………….. 9 1.2.5-Climate……………………………………………………………. 11 1.3-District Gilgit………………………………………………………….. 12 1.4-District Skardu………………………………………………………… 15 1.5-District Astore…………………………………………………………. 18 vi 1.6-Problems and issues…………………………………………………… 20 PART-I PHYTOSOCIOLOGY CHAPTER-2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1-Introduction…………………………………………………………… 23 2.1.1-Ecology…………………………………………………………… 23 2.1.2-Soil-Vegetation relation…………………………………………… 28 2.1.3-Multivariate Analysis……………………………………………... 31 CHAPTER-3 PHYTOSOCIOLOGICAL STUDIES 3.1- Introduction…………………………………………………………… 35 3.1.1-Objective………………………………………………………….. 35 3.2- Materials and Methods……………………………………………….. 36 3.3- Results………………………………………………………………… 38 3.3.1-Description of communities………………………………………. 45 3.3.1.1-Pinus-Juniperus community……………………………………. 45 3.3.1.2-Pinus-Betula community……………………………………... 45 3.3.1.3-Picea-Juniperus community………………………………….. 46 3.3.1.4-Picea-Pinus community………………………………………. 48 3.3.1.5-Pinus wallichiana-Pinus gerardiana community……………. 48 3.3.1.6-Picea smithiana pure stands………………………………….. 49 3.3.1.7-Pinus wallichiana pure stands………………………………... 49 3.3.1.8-Betula utilis pure stands………………………………………. 51 3.3.1.9-Juniperus macropoda pure stand……………………………... 52 3.3.1.10-Abies pindrow pure stands…………………………………... 52 3.4-Discussion and conclusion…………………………………………….. 52 vii CHAPTER-4 STRUCTURE OF FOREST 4.1-Introduction……………………………………………………………. 60 4.2-Objectives……………………………………………………………… 61 4.3-Materials and Methods………………………………………………… 62 4.3.1-Sampling…………………………………………………………… 62 4.3.2-Statistical analysis…………………………………………………. 62 4.3.3-Size class structure………………………………………………… 62 4.3.4-Weibull distribution model……………………………………….. 62 4.3.5-Formula……………………………………………………………. 63 4.4-Results and discussion 63 4.4.1-Stand No 01 (Basho-A)…………………………………………… 63 4.4.2-Stand No 02 (Basho-B)…………………………………………… 64 4.4.3-Stand No 03 (Gasing-A)………………………………………….. 64 4.4.4-Stand No 04 (Gasing-B)………………………………………….. 65 4.4.5-Stand No 05 (Gasing-C)………………………………………….. 66 4.4.6-Stand No 06 (Hargosil-A)………………………………………... 66 4.4.7-Stand No 07 (Hargosil-B)………………………………………… 67 4.4.8-Stand No 08 (Memosh-A)………………………………………… 67 4.4.9-Stand No 09 (Memosh-B)………………………………………… 68 4.4.10-Stand No 10 (Memosh-C)……………………………………….. 68 4.4.11-Stand No 11 (Ganji-A)…………………………………………... 69 4.4.12-Stand No 12 (Ganji-B)…………………………………………... 69 4.4.13-Stand No 13 (Ganji-C)…………………………………………... 70 4.4.14-Stand No 14 (Ganji-D)…………………………………………... 70 4.4.15-Stand No 15 (Kargah-A)………………………………………… 71 4.4.16-Stand No 16 (Kargah-B)………………………………………… 71 viii 4.4.17-Stand No 17 (Kargah-C)………………………………………… 72 4.4.18-Stand No 18 (Jutial-A)…………………………………………... 72 4.4.19-Stand No 19 (Jutial-B)…………………………………………... 73 4.4.20-Stand No 20 (Naltar-A)…………………………………………. 73 4.4.21-Stand No 21 (Naltar-B)………………………………………….