Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Functional Plant Ecology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1469579

Floristic diversity and species composition along the altitudinal gradient in the alpine ecosystem of the Cold Desert Region, Region of Nelang Valley, in wWestern Himalaya, India

Provisionally accepted
Amit Bahukhandi Amit Bahukhandi 1K Chandra Sekar K Chandra Sekar 1*Vikram S. Negi Vikram S. Negi 2*Kapil Bisht Kapil Bisht 1Deep C. Tiwari Deep C. Tiwari 1Poonam Mehta Poonam Mehta 1SHASHI UPADHYAY SHASHI UPADHYAY 1Sazada Siddiqui Sazada Siddiqui 3Amel Ayari-Akkari Amel Ayari-Akkari 3
  • 1 Govind Ballabh Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Almora, India
  • 2 Department of Botany & Microbiology, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, B.G.R. Campus, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India, Pauri, India
  • 3 Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha-61413, Saudi Arabia, Abha, Saudi Arabia

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

    In India, the Trans-Himalayan zone lies in the rain shadow of the main Himalayan region and is usually described as a ‘high altitude cold desert’. These regions are represented by sparse, but unique vegetation composition. The present study is an attempt to investigate the vegetation composition in the alpine ecosystem of the cold desert landscape that is Nelang Valley in western Himalaya (Uttarakhand), India. The result of the study reveals the existence of a total of 68 taxa of higher plants (56 genera and 28 families). These include herbs (51 species), shrubs (13 species), climbers (1 species), and tree species (3). Herbaceous species (52 species) contributed the maximum in species richness; Artemisia, Astragalus, and Juniperus were the dominant genera followed by Aster, Lonicera, Oxytropis, Poa, and Salix. The valley showed irregular distribution of plant species richness along the altitudinal gradient, and maximum taxa exhibited between 3500-3600 m altitude band. In the Nelang Valley, the total number of phytodiversity individuals exhibited a significant linear decline with increasing altitude (3100-4300 m). Further, the study recorded 33 important medicinal plants used in the traditional system of herbal medicine in the Himalayan region. Juniperus semiglobosa shows dominance with maximum IVI (31.77) followed by Pinus wallichiana (29.19) and Cedrus deodara (10.72 in the treeline ecotone of the Valley. Rapid Threat Assessment shows that Artemisia dubia and A.roxburghiana were found most vulnerable herb species in the region. The information thus generated will be useful for suggesting ecological management and conservation planning.

    Keywords: Trans-HImalaya, Alpine region, Nelang Valley, Floristic diversity, High altitude vegetation, Biodiversity Cconservation

    Received: 24 Jul 2024; Accepted: 21 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bahukhandi, Sekar, Negi, Bisht, Tiwari, Mehta, UPADHYAY, Siddiqui and Ayari-Akkari. 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:
    K Chandra Sekar, Govind Ballabh Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development, Almora, India
    Vikram S. Negi, Department of Botany & Microbiology, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, B.G.R. Campus, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India, Pauri, India

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.