Regeneration Pattern of Tree Species in Forested Landscapes of Himachal Pradesh, Western Himalayan Region, India

Abstract

The present work was conducted to assess the regeneration pattern of dominant tree species in the forested landscapes of Himachal Pradesh, India. The study was conducted in four agro-climatic zones viz., zone I, zone II, zone III and zone IV, of the state at 58 locations during 2002-2007. Stratified random quadrat sampling was employed to estimate regeneration pattern of tree species by classifying them into seedling, sapling and adult stages. The analysis of data was carried out using MS excel while it was spatially represented in Geographic Information System environment. The regeneration pattern was divided in to four classes namely good, fair, poor and no regeneration. A total of 23 forest landscape elements (LSEs) dominated by 18 tree species were observed at the surveyed localities. These tree species are representative of the western Himalayan ecosystem. The number of seedlings, saplings and adults ranged from 0 to 2,700/ha, 0 to 1,500/ha, and 20 to 1,470/ha, respectively in different LSEs. Picea smithiana was observed to posses highest number of seedlings (2,700/ha) and saplings (1,500/ha) in zone IV and zone III, respectively. Cedrus deodara, on the other hand, had the maximum number of adults (1,470/ha) in its pure patch in Shimla in zone III. The results showed that amongst the four agro-climatic zones, the zone I in general had a trend of poor to no regeneration while other zones generally had fair regeneration. Zone I and zone II had poor, fair and no regeneration pattern. The trees in zone III and zone IV had good regeneration pattern in addition to poor, fair and no regeneration. Based on the results of present study, it is suggested that efficient measures are needed to conserve and to increase the tree regeneration growth in zone I of the state, whereas special efforts should be made to maintain the luxuriant forest status in rest of the agro-climatic zones of Himachal Pradesh.

Poor regeneration of Brown Oak (Quercus semecarpifolia Sm.) in high altitudes: A case study from Tungnath, Western Himalaya

“…Individuals > 31.5 cm cbh were considered trees, 31.5-10.5 cm cbh as saplings, and individuals <10.5 cm cbh (less than 1 m height) were considered as seedlings. To assess the current regeneration status, the method given in Kumar et al (2014) was used, and their four categories of regeneration were applied to categorize the stands of Q. Semecarpifolia as follows: (i) Good regeneration -Seedling > Sapling > Adults, (ii) Fair regeneration -Seedling > Sapling ≤ Adults, (iii) Poor regeneration -Seedling and Adult trees only (Saplings absent), and (iv) None (no regeneration). Additional data on changes in temperature and precipitation (www.carbonbrief.org; Yadav et al, 2014) have been included and used to interpret the results of this study, as reported in the Results and Discussion section.…”

“…Given the importance of this species, and other oak species in this region, additional attention has been given to documenting the regeneration capacity of the trees in high altitude forests of the Himalayan region. This includes Nepal (Shrestha, 2003;Vetaas, 2000), Western Himalaya (Bisht et al, 2011(Bisht et al, , 2013Kumar et al, 2014;Rai et al, 2013;Singh and Rawat, 2012;Sing et al, 2011) and Northwestern Himalaya (Pant and Samant, 2012).…”

Managing forest ecosystem services for hydropower production

“…Data were not available for the upstream portion of the Satluj catchment in China, and so the study area for Nathpa Jhakri was limited to the watershed area downstream of Wangtoo (Figure 1). Study watersheds are located in agro-ecological zones III and IV of India (Kumar et al 2013).…”

“…Zone IV represents the dry temperate and cold deserts of the Trans-Himalayan region, with elevations above 2,472 m and annual rainfall ranging from 2500 to 4000 mm. This zone includes Himalayan dry temperate and sub-alpine forests at the lower elevation and moist alpine scrub forests at higher elevations (Kumar et al 2013). Agricultural areas are predominantly double-crop systems, with rice or maize in the summer (monsoon) season and wheat or barley in the winter season.…”

Review on essential oils, chemical composition, extraction, and utilization of some conifers in Northwestern Himalayas

“…Vegetation includes dominant moist temperate forests of C. deodara , sometimes tree diversity grows with mixed stands of coniferous forests includes P. smithiana , P. wallichiana , A. pindrow , Acer , Taxus , and Quercus . Zone‐IV represents the most significant zone among all four covering areas of 39% of the entire region area from higher dry temperate region range to cold deserts of the Trans‐ Himalayas with an altitudinal range above 2,472 m amsl and an annual rainfall of 25–40 cm (Kumar et al, 2014). Conifers are P. gerardiana , C. deodara , and sub‐alpine forests, including A. pindrow , P. smithiana , and P. wallichiana (Shodhganga, 2019a).…”