Forest communities and factors responsible for vegetation pattern in the legally protected areas of the Kashmir Himalaya, India

Abstract

Background The protected areas (PAs) of any region are contributing people’s livelihoods and are proving to be the backbone of all forms of biodiversity conservation. The reforms in protection rules at global level and legal protection at local level has contributed a lot to the conservation of forests and other associated biodiversity. However, due to various anthropogenic activities and other climatic changes, protected areas and other species rich sites are being exposed to a continuous threat. Realizing the future perspective of potential and economic value of these protected forests, the phytosociological investigations were carried out in protected forests of Jammu and Kashmir in Kashmir Himalaya. Results Floristically, a total of 84 species belonging to 71 genera in 39 families were recorded. The floristic analysis revealed that the dominant plant families in the study area comprises of Rosaceae with (14%) species, followed by Asteraceae (8%) species and Poaceae (7%) species. Species richness of the vascular plants varied from 38–55, and Shannon-Wiener diversity index value of scrub forest type was statistically lower than that of the coniferous forest and other forest types. The average tree density of 890 individual’s ha− 1 was recorded throughout the study area. Conclusions The diversity of various plant species differed across the dimensions. The phytosociological parameters are being affected by discrete levels within soil parameters. Plant community composition displayed a significant change within forest types even when species richness didn’t alter. Furthermore, the prototype of conservation biology has got shifted towards updated patter of biodiversity safeguarding by highlighting various multi-scale approaches. There are some critical abiotic factors, which prove very much helpful in understanding the mechanisms operating at a specific level to create variation in species diversity as well as in community composition.