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Functional trait diversity and aboveground biomass of herbaceous vegetation in temperate forests of Kashmir Himalaya

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Abstract

Studying functional trait diversity can provide crucial clues about the adaptive survival strategies of regional plant species pool. Despite large-scale trait datasets available worldwide, the plant trait data from many biodiversity hotpot regions, like the Himalaya is still scarce. In this study, we aimed to investigate the plant functional traits and aboveground biomass of understory herbaceous vegetation in temperate forests of Overa-Aru wildlife sanctuary of Kashmir Himalaya. We also investigate how these functional traits correlate and what is the magnitude of trait-biomass relationship across the herbaceous species pool. For this, we conducted field sampling and measured leaf functional traits and aboveground biomass of 38 plant species in the study region during peak growing season (July–August) in the year 2021. The results revealed a significant interspecific trait variability among the species studied. We observed a high variability in leaf size and type spectra of the species, with nanophyll and simple leaf lamina, respectively, the most common types among the species studied. The correlation analysis revealed that plant height was positively correlated with aboveground biomass. The variation partitioning analysis revealed that the plant height explained the maximum fraction of variation in aboveground biomass, while least by specific leaf area. Overall, the findings from the present study provide useful insights in understanding trait-trait relationship and trait-environment interaction at the regional scale and can also help in recognizing adaptive functional traits of plant species that determine plant survival under the changing climate in this Himalayan region.

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Data availability

The primary data will be made available on request.

Abbreviations

AGB :

Aboveground biomass

BSI :

Botanical Survey of India

LA :

Leaf area

POWO :

Plants of the World Online

SLA :

Specific leaf area

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the research scholars and supporting staff of BIOTA Laboratory, Centre for Biodiversity and Taxonomy, Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, for their kind assistance and support during the present study. The authors also acknowledge Sajad Ahmad Wani, Centre for Biodiversity and Taxonomy (CBT), University of Kashmir, for his help in the data analysis. We duly acknowledge the necessary permission granted by Department of Wildlife Protection, Jammu & Kashmir Government to conduct this study. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their valuable comments and suggestions, which have greatly improved quality of the manuscript.

Funding

Tajamul Islam acknowledge the University Grants Commission (UGC) under 924/(CSIRNET JUNE-2019) for providing financial assistance as Junior Research Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Biodiversity & Taxonomy, Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, 190 006, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Tajamul Islam, Maroof Hamid & Anzar Ahmad Khuroo

  2. Plant Reproductive Biology, Genetic Diversity and Phytochemistry Research Laboratory, Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, 190 006, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Tajamul Islam & Irshad A. Nawchoo

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Contributions

Tajamul Islam: Conceptualization; Methodology; Data collection; Curation and analysis; Software; Visualization; Writing-Original draft; Revision. Maroof Hamid: Data curation and analysis; Writing-Original draft. Anzar Ahmad Khuroo: Conceptualization; Methodology; Supervision; Investigation; Validation; Writing-Original draft; Revision. Irshad A. Nawchoo: Conceptualization; Supervision; Investigation; Validation.

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Islam, T., Hamid, M., Khuroo, A.A. et al. Functional trait diversity and aboveground biomass of herbaceous vegetation in temperate forests of Kashmir Himalaya. Environ Monit Assess 196, 60 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-12215-4

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