Species Distribution Pattern and Their Contribution in Plant Community Assembly in Response to Ecological Gradients of the Ecotonal Zone in the Himalayan Region

Rahman, Inayat Ur; Afzal, Aftab; Iqbal, Zafar; Hashem, Abeer; Al-Arjani, Al-Bandari Fahad; Alqarawi, Abdulaziz A.; Abd_Allah, Elsayed Fathi; Abdalla, Mohnad; Calixto, Eduardo Soares; Sakhi, Shazia; Ali, Niaz; Bussmann, Rainer W.

doi:10.3390/plants10112372

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…A similar pattern was observed in the allied area (Nandiar catchment, Battagram) of the Himalayan region by stating altitude as the governing gradient [35]. Such variables alter the species diversity as well as community structure [82,83]. Species composition, community structure, and species diversity, however, are influenced not just by environmental factors but also by local micro-abiotic filtration [84].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Typology of Pure Deodar Forests Driven by Vegetation–Environment Relations in Manoor Valley, Northwestern Himalaya

et al. 2022

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The current research was carried out to characterize the phytosociology of the forests of one of Pakistan’s most valuable tree species (Deodar) across its native range. In this context, our main hypothesis was that, along the altitudinal gradient, we would find different plant communities that would be driven by different environmental variables (climatic, edaphic, and physiographic). Therefore, to assess the vegetation structure of the pure Deodar forests of the unexplored Manoor Valley (Northwestern Himalaya), Pakistan, frequent field visits were carried out during different seasons of 2015–2018. Ecological methods: Line transects sampling (23 stands) and phytosociological attributes were evaluated in relation to geographical and environmental variables. Various statistical software applications (i.e., PCORD, RStudio 4.0, and R 3.6.1) were used to examine all of the gathered data of plant species and environmental variables. A total of three different plant communities (Cedrus–Isodon–Cynodon, Cedrus–Cynodon–Dryopteris, and Sambucus–Cedrus–Desmodium) were identified by grouping 162 species and 23 stands in pure Deodar forests under the influence of geographic, slope, edaphic, and climatic variables, ranging from 1580.8 to 2373.8 m. The altitude (1936–2373 m), slope angle (25–85°), sandy (29–48%) and loamy soil texture, wind speed (1.45 ms−1), and temperature (25.8 °C) all had a strong influence on the Sambucus–Cedrus–Desmodium community. In contrast with this, the Cedrus–Cynodon–Dryopteris community showed a positively significant relationship with the northeastern slope, silty (32–58%) and sandy (15.8–55%) loamy soil texture, and barometric pressure (814.3 pa). Nonetheless, the Cedrus–Isodon–Cynodon community revealed a significant positive association with the northeastern to southwestern slope, pH (6.3), wet bulb (19.7), and dew point (17.7). We found significant differences (p < 0.001) among the three communities found in the pure Deodar forests in the four diversity indexes. The Sambucus–Cedrus–Desmodium community has the maximum number of plants (129 species), Shannon’s diversity (H’ = 3.7), and Simpson’s dominance (0.98) values among the recorded communities. The Pielou’s evenness index value was led by the Cedrus–Isodon–Cynodon community (0.97). Beta diversity showed a dissimilarity lower than 50% among the three communities. Simple term effects in the canonical correspondence analysis model revealed significant (p < 0.05) differences in altitude, slope angle, slope (southeastern), and wind speed variables. The present investigation sheds light on vegetation pattern and species contribution as a function of environmental gradients and provides a baseline for future studies.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Typology of Pure Deodar Forests Driven by Vegetation–Environment Relations in Manoor Valley, Northwestern Himalaya

et al. 2022

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“…These results indicate that there is not a significant loss of the number of species between the plant community, but a variation in the species composition. This variation may be closely linked to the environmental effects in the area, which induces the appearance of species adapted to environmental variables [109]. The local community composition replacement implied the simultaneous loss and gain of species due to immigration-extinction dynamics and trait-based environmental filtering [110,111].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental variables drive plant species composition and distribution in the moist temperate forests of Northwestern Himalaya, Pakistan

et al. 2022

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By assessing plant species composition and distribution in biodiversity hotspots influenced by environmental gradients, we greatly advance our understanding of the local plant community and how environmental factors are affecting these communities. This is a proxy for determining how climate change influences plant communities in mountainous regions ("space-for-time" substitution). We evaluated plant species composition and distribution, and how and which environmental variables drive the plant communities in moist temperate zone of Manoor valley of Northwestern Himalaya, Pakistan. During four consecutive years (2015–2018), we sampled 30 sampling sites, measuring 21 environmental variables, and recording all plant species present in an altitudinal variable range of 1932–3168 m.a.s.l. We used different multivariate analyses to identify potential plant communities, and to evaluate the relative importance of each environmental variable in the species composition and distribution. Finally, we also evaluated diversity patterns, by comparing diversity indices and beta diversity processes. We found that (i) the moist temperate zone in this region can be divided in four different major plant communities; (ii) each plant community has a specific set of environmental drivers; (iii) there is a significant variation in plant species composition between communities, in which six species contributed most to the plant composition dissimilarity; (iv) there is a significant difference of the four diversity indices between communities; and (v) community structure is twice more influenced by the spatial turnover of species than by the species loss. Overall, we showed that altitudinal gradients offer an important range of different environmental variables, highlighting the existence of micro-climates that drive the structure and composition of plant species in each micro-region. Each plant community along the altitudinal gradient is influenced by a set of environmental variables, which lead to the presence of indicator species in each micro-region.

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“…Understanding how community composition varies in response to environmental variability is important in order to understand biodiversity 90 , productivity, and ecological stability 91 , 92 . With the advent of modern methods and techniques 93 , a number of contributions to modern plant ecology have addressed the question of complex vegetation patterns 70 , 94 – 96 . TWINSPAN categorized 218 plant species from 13 Manoor Valley mixed coniferous forest study sites into four primary plant communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation–environment interactions: plant species distribution and community assembly in mixed coniferous forests of Northwestern Himalayas

Rahman,

Hart,

Afzal

et al. 2023

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One of the main goals of ecological studies is to disentangle the dynamics that underlie the spatiotemporal distribution of biodiversity and further functions of the ecosystem. However, due to many ecological and geopolitical reasons, many remote areas with high plant species diversity have not been assessed using newly based analytical approaches for vegetation characterization. Here, we classified and characterized different vegetation types (i.e., major plant communities) based on indicator species and on the influence of different environmental gradients in the Himalayan mixed coniferous forest, Pakistan. For that, we addressed the following questions: Does the vegetation composition of the Himalayan mixed coniferous forest correlate with climatic, topographic, geographic, and edaphic variables? Is it possible to identify plant communities through indicator species in relation to environmental gradients using multivariate approaches? Can this multivariate be helpful for conservation planning? During four consecutive years we assessed the vegetation composition and environmental variables (21 variables divided in geographic, climatic, topographic, and edaphic groups) of 156 50 m-trasects between an elevation of 2000–4000 m. Using newly based analytical approaches for community characterization, we found a total of 218 plant species clustered into four plant communities with the influence of environmental gradients. The highest index of similarity was recorded between Pinus-Cedrus-Viburnum (PCV) and Viburnum-Pinus-Abies (VPA) communities, and the highest index of dissimilarity was recorded between PCV and Abies-Juniperus-Picea (AJP) communities. Among these four communities, highest number of plant species (156 species) was recorded in PCV, maximum alpha diversity (H’ = 3.68) was reported in VPA, highest Simpson index (0.961) and Pielou’s evenness (0.862) were reported in VPA and AJP. The edaphic gradients (i.e., organic matter, phosphorous, pH and soil texture) and climatic factors (temperature, humidity) were the strongest environmental gradients that were responsible for structuring and hosting the diverse plant communities in mixed coniferous forest. Finally, the Himalayan mixed coniferous structure is more influenced by the spatial turnover beta-diversity process (βsim) than by the species loss (nestedness-resultant, βsne). Our analysis of the vegetation structure along the environmental gradient in the Himalayan mixed coniferous forest supported by sophisticated analytical approaches reveled indicator species groups, which are associated to specific microclimatic zones (i.e., vegetation communities). Within this focus, we side with the view that these results can support conservation planning and management for similar and different areas providing mitigating and preventive measures to reduce potential negative impacts, such as anthropic and climatic.

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Species Distribution Pattern and Their Contribution in Plant Community Assembly in Response to Ecological Gradients of the Ecotonal Zone in the Himalayan Region

Cited by 9 publications

References 62 publications

Typology of Pure Deodar Forests Driven by Vegetation–Environment Relations in Manoor Valley, Northwestern Himalaya

Typology of Pure Deodar Forests Driven by Vegetation–Environment Relations in Manoor Valley, Northwestern Himalaya

Environmental variables drive plant species composition and distribution in the moist temperate forests of Northwestern Himalaya, Pakistan

Vegetation–environment interactions: plant species distribution and community assembly in mixed coniferous forests of Northwestern Himalayas

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