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Age-Girth Stand Structure of Himalayan Fir and Growth-NDVI Relationship in the Treeline Transects of Western Himalaya: An Ecological Perspective

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Ecology of Himalayan Treeline Ecotone

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Abstract

Subalpine forests are the important indicators of climate change and the future biomass stock under forest densification and treeline advancement. Analysing the stand structure and growth behaviour of trees is essential for the assessment of the functioning and sustainable management of forest resources. We provided the girth and age stand structure of Abies spp. (silver fir) from the treeline ecotone in the moist transects of Western Himalaya, and the relationship between fir growth and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) for assessing the forest health. The age and girth class analysis of fir trees from the four different treeline transects revealed the presence of mixed age and girth classes within the treeline ecotone. Fir trees were established around 200 years ago in the transects with subsequent densification, but the fir treeline showed static behaviour during the later part of the twentieth century. We also found variations in the girth size increment with age amongst the fir trees, which is statistically significant for the fir trees growing near treeline ecotone. The relationships between the tree-ring width chronologies and NDVI suggested the role of temperature in controlling forest health. Such studies could help in extending the existing vegetation cover records to more past for better evaluation of changes in forest health and interaction with climatic conditions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Director, Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow for the necessary support to carry out this work and permission to publish this work (BSIP/RDCC/Publication No. 33/2021-22). The authors extend sincere acknowledgement to MoEF & CC, New Delhi for financial support (1886/XII-86/2016) under National Mission on Himalayan Studies, and the Space Applications Centre (SAC) - ISRO, Ahmedabad, India, under the Studies on Harnessing Remote Sensing for Environment and Climate (SHRESTI) programme (SAC/EPSA/BPSG/ALPINE/SHRESTI/09/2019). The DAAD fellowship by FAU, Germany is duly acknowledged by the author BDC. The support provided by the Forest Departments of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir state for sample collection is deeply accredited. We are highly grateful to Dr. R. S. Rawal (Ex-Director GBPNIHESD, Almora) and Prof. S. P. Singh, Coordinator of the project for their kind support and valuable inputs in this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Bency D. Chinthala, Ayushi Singh, Mayank Shekhar, Nidhi Tomar, Parminder S. Ranhotra & A. Bhattacharyya

  2. Institute of Geography, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Bency D. Chinthala

  3. G. B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, Almora, Uttarakhand, India

    Mohit Phulara

  4. Department of Geography, Lucknow University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Arti Yadav & Pushpendra Pandey

  5. Space Applications Centre (SAC), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

    C. P. Singh

  6. G. B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, Sikkim Regional Centre, Pangthang, Gangtok, Sikkim, India

    Rajesh Joshi

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  1. Bency D. Chinthala
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Central Himalayan Environment Association, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    S P Singh

  2. Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

    Zafar Ahmad Reshi

  3. G B Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, Sikkim Regional Centre, Pangthang, Gangtok, Sikkim, India

    Rajesh Joshi

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Chinthala, B.D. et al. (2023). Age-Girth Stand Structure of Himalayan Fir and Growth-NDVI Relationship in the Treeline Transects of Western Himalaya: An Ecological Perspective. In: Singh, S.P., Reshi, Z.A., Joshi, R. (eds) Ecology of Himalayan Treeline Ecotone. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4476-5_19

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