Trends in structural compositional attributes of dune-interdune vegetation and their edaphic relations in the Indian desert

Abstract

Vegetation of 127 sites on different aspects of dune-interdunes in the Indian Thar Desert was classified using TWINSPAN. TWINSPAN groupings of sites separated better vegetated dunes of the northeast form the poorly vegetated dunes of the northwest and the southwest. Of the different ordinations using noncentred, centred and centred and standardized principal component analysis, reciprocal averaging and detrended correspondence analysis (DCA), the site and species classes in DCA correlated well with ten edaphic and ten vegetational attributes of each site. Strong correlation of vegetation groupings with soil texture, moisture holding capacity and low correlation with pH and electrical conductivity revealed the possible importance of soil physical properties in affecting vegetation composition.The 11 species classes in TWlNSPAN were regrouped into 18 species classes in DCA, which separated highly frequent species from those of less and least frequent species. Based on dominance-diversity attributes, Calligonum polygonoides-Lasiurus sindicus was brought out as bioedaphic climax stage. Correlation of ordination scores in different site groupings with vegetational attributes showed specific trends: From the zero of x, y and z axes to their maximum, the ordination scores of grasses and browse species declined while score of spinous species increased. The sites near the origin of the x, y and z axes were therefore least degraded and those at or near the maximum of x, y & z axes were most disturbed as was confirmed by the dominance diversity trends. Thus trends of compositional and functional attributes of vegetation of sites in different groupings helped in inferring a site's degradation status.

A Multivariate Analiysis in Relation to Edaphical and Environmental Factors of Rangelands Vegetation of Mugla Province

“…It has been determined that soil factors with soil chemistry changes have positive or negative effects on the species in vegetation. Similar results were reported by other researchers (Kumar 1996;Ridolfi et al 2008;Amiri & Saadatfar 2009;Kabir et al 2010;Kirkpatrick et al 2014). It has been determined that different species have different effects depending on the change in altitude, which is one of the environmental factors and has a close relationship with vegetation change.…”

Desert vegetation and vegetation-environment relationships in Kirthar National Park, Sindh, Pakistan

“…Soil chemistry has been reported to affect plant species composition through levels of salinity (Sharma and Shankar, 1991;Kumar, 1996;Abbadi and El Sheikh, 2002), pH, calcium and organic carbon (El-Ghani, 1998). Low species richness has been recorded where levels of salinity and CaCO 3 are high (El-Ghani, 1998), while species composition and richness patterns have also been linked to trends in community development through time (succession) as soil conditions for plant growth improve in association with increasing soil depth, organic matter and water holding capacity, and decreasing pH and CaCO 3 (Shaukat et al, 1981).…”

“…Physical factors include rainfall (Kadmon and Danin, 1999), soil moisture and texture (El-Demerdash et al, 1995;Kumar, 1996), ground-water depth (Kumar, 1992;Schultka and Cornelius, 1997), altitude (Burke, 2001), aspect, slope, topographic position and landform (Yair and Danin, 1980;Vetaas, 1993), and aeolian and fluvial processes Ali et al, 2000). In relation to the latter, Aguiar and Sala (1999) contend that vegetation cover and pattern in arid ecosystems is primarily driven by the redistribution of materials and propagules, either by wind or water, with banded vegetation (linear strips of vegetation, often perpendicular to the slope, separated by largely bare areas) resulting when water is the dominant driver, and spotted vegetation (clumps of vegetation separated by bare areas) when wind is the driver.…”

Rarity of Ceropegia bulbosa Roxb. var. lushii and protocol for its ex-situ conservation in the Indian desert

“…The tuber is eaten either raw or cooked. Ecological distribution: Appraisals of vegetation in the past four decades in the Rajasthan (Pandey and Padhye, 2007;Kumar, 1987, 1988;Shankar, 1985, 1987;Kumar, 1996Kumar, , 1997Kumar, , 1998Kumar, , 2002Kumar, , 2003aKumar, , 2003bKumar et al, 2002;Shetty and Singh, 1993) reported it from a very few locations because it is hidden under gregarious shrubs of Euphorbia caducifolia, Grewia tenax, Rhus mysorensis and Dichrostachys cinerea. Researchers are therefore, unanimous about its patchy, isolated and restricted occurrence (Bhandari,1990;Gaikwad et al, 1989;Patil, 1990;Supate et al, 1990 andYadav, 1996).…”