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

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, India. Section B: Biological sciences Vol. 84; no. 3; pp. 695 - 707
• Main Authors: Kumar, Amit, Singh, K. N., Brij Lal, Chawla, Amit, Uniyal, S. K., Kaushal, Rajesh, Singh, R. D., Ahuja, P. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: India Springer India 2014
• Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Life Sciences; Nucleic Acid Chemistry; Plant Biochemistry; Research Article; Western Himalaya; Quadrat; Sampling; Landscape elements; Geographic Information System; Agro-climatic zones
• ISSN: 0369-8211; 2250-1746
• DOI: 10.1007/s40011-013-0264-9

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.