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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Management
Volume 7 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2024.1420855

Abundance, diversity and composition of understory plants along the altitudinal gradient and dominant overstory composition types in the temperate Himalayan region

Provisionally accepted
Saveena Sangry Saveena Sangry 1Praveen Kumar Praveen Kumar 1*D. R. Bhardwaj D. R. Bhardwaj 1Kuldeep S. Dogra Kuldeep S. Dogra 2Poonam . Poonam . 3
  • 1 Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, India
  • 2 Botanical Survey of India, Calcutta, India
  • 3 Faculty of Applied Sciences and Biotechnology, Shoolini University, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Indian Himalayan forests are remarkable landforms experiencing tremendous climatic variation, constituting complex and diversified ecosystems with prominent vegetation zones.Despite their global significance and substantial research efforts focused on plant diversity in the temperate Himalayan region, only a few studies have explicitly assessed the distribution patterns of understory vegetation in relation to forest compositional types along altitudinal gradients. The present study explores the pattern of understory vegetation abundance, species diversity and composition along the altitudinal gradients and among dominant overstory composition types in the Himalayan region. A total of 99 understory species including 37 species in the shrub layer, 62 species in the herb layer vegetation were recorded. The abundance, species diversity and composition of understory vegetation differed significantly along the altitudinal gradient and dominant overstory composition types. The hump shaped pattern along the altitudinal gradient appeared to be the most dominant pattern of plant abundance and species diversity and call for more conservation concern towards the middle elevation zones in the temperate Himalayan region. Moreover, distinct understory vegetation communities were observed at lower elevations compared to higher elevations, with middle elevations exhibiting intermediate vegetation characteristics. The study also highlighted the importance of dominant overstory composition types in shaping the pattern of understory vegetation abundance, species diversity and composition in the temperate Himalayan region. The higher resource conditions associated with broadleaved stands supported higher understory species abundance at lower elevations, while the heterogeneous conditions induced by the mixedwood stands promoted higher understory species diversity. Therefore, management interventions should aim at maintaining diverse range of overstory composition types for conserving biodiversity and their ecological functions in the temperate Himalayan region.

    Keywords: abundance, altitudinal gradient, Overstory composition, species diversity, temperate Himalayan region, Understory vegetation, forest management

    Received: 21 Apr 2024; Accepted: 12 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sangry, Kumar, Bhardwaj, Dogra and .. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Praveen Kumar, Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, India

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