A hierarchy of landscape-habitat-plant physiognomic classes in the Indian Trans-Himalaya

oleh: Amit Kumar, Bhupendra Singh Adhikari, Gopal Singh Rawat

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Elsevier 2022-03-01

Deskripsi

Globally, a number of leading countries have adopted biogeographic based protected area planning to conserve their natural resources. India, a mega-diverse country also has conceded with a massive exercise to prepare a biogeography based conservation planning. Undoubtedly, initiating such conservation planning at national or regional level requires a holistic understanding about the landscapes and its habitat features for their long-term management. In the Indian Trans-Himalaya (ITH), quite a few authors have attempted to identify and name various habitat and vegetation classes. However, several terms have been used on adhoc basis and loosely leading to ambiguity and difficulty in mapping landscape elements and conservation planning. In order to overcome this predicament, the current communication proposes a standardized protocol to identify peculiar landscape-habitat-plant physiognomic classes in ITH. Based on an analysis of habitat characteristics in terms of their geo-morphological and vegetation attributes coupled with an extensive review and examination of existing studies, a total of 20 classes comprising 10 landforms and 10 physiognomic units have been proposed. Salient identifying features of different classes with respect to their physical attributes such as elevation, slope, orientation, stratification, rock exposure, soil type; and vegetation attributes along with dominant and representative species and their management are discussed in detail.