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Vegetation-environment relationship in conifer dominating forests of the mountainous range of Indus Kohistan in northern Pakistan

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Abstract

Environmental variables play a crucial role in shaping vegetation structure, mainly in mountainous ecosystems. Different studies have attempted to identify the environment-vegetation relationship of Conifer Dominating Forests (CDF) worldwide. However, due to differences in local climate and soil composition, different environmental drivers can be found. By applying multivariate analysis techniques, this study investigated the vegetation-environment relationship of CDF of Indus Kohistan in northern Pakistan. Our results showed that CDF of Indus Kohistan are distributed in five distinct ecological groups, which are dominated by different trees and understory species. A total of 7 trees and 71 understory species were recorded from the sampling sites. Cedrus deodara was the leading species among four groups, having the highest importance value (IV), density and basal area. Group I was dominated by Pinus wallichiana with the second highest importance value, density and basal area. In addition, elevation, slope, maximum water holding capacity (MWHC), soil moisture (SM), total organic matter (TOM), sodium, phosphorus and nickel showed highly significant influence on composition and distribution pattern of Indus Kohistan vegetation. Therefore, this study shows a new evidence of vegetation-environment relationship, pointing out specific drivers of vegetation structure in CDF of Indus Kohistan region in northern Pakistan.

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Acknowledgement

The authors are highly acknowledged to the Editor and two anonymous reviewers for their useful suggestion and comments in improving the quality of this manuscript. The authors also wish to thanks Humim Munir, Sarangzeeb and Nasar Khan for their cooperation in data collection during field survey.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of Buner, Swari, 19290, Pakistan

    Adam Khan & Afsheen Khan

  2. Dr. Moinuddin Ahmed Research Laboratory of Dendrochronology and Plant Ecology Department of Botany, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology Gulshan-e-Iqbal campus Karachi, Karachi, 75300, Pakistan

    Moinuddin Ahmed & Javed Iqbal

  3. Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi, 75270, Pakistan

    Muhammad Faheem Siddiqi & Muhammad Azeem

  4. Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mardan, 23200, Pakistan

    Mohib Shah

  5. Department of Entomology, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Ribeirão Preto, 14040-900, Brazil

    Eduardo Soares Calixto

  6. Dr. Abdul Ghaffar laboratory of Plant Pathology and Aerobiology, Department of Botany, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology Gulshan-e-Iqbal campus Karachi, Karachi, 75300, Pakistan

    Paras Shah

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  1. Adam Khan
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Khan, A., Ahmed, M., Siddiqi, M.F. et al. Vegetation-environment relationship in conifer dominating forests of the mountainous range of Indus Kohistan in northern Pakistan. J. Mt. Sci. 17, 1989–2000 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-019-5562-0

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