Biomass and diversity of dry alpine plant communities along altitudinal gradients in the Himalayas
2012
Namgail, T. | Rawat, G.S. | Mishra, C. | Wieren, van, S.E. | Prins, H.H.T.
A non-linear relationship between phytodiversity and altitude has widely been reported, but the relationship between phytomass and altitude remains little understood.We examined the phytomass and diversity of vascular plants along altitudinal gradients on the dry alpine rangelands of Ladakh, western Himalaya. We used generalized linear and generalized additivemodels to assess the relationship between these vegetation parameters and altitude. We found a humpshaped relationship between aboveground phytomass and altitude.Wesuspect that this is engendered by low rainfall and trampling/excessive grazing at lower slopes by domestic livestock, and low temperature and low nutrient levels at higher slopes.Wealso found a unimodal relationship between plant species-richness and altitude at a singlemountain as well as at the scale of entire Ladakh. The species-richness at the single mountain peaked between 5,000 and 5,200 m, while it peaked between 3,500 and 4,000 m at entire Ladakh level.
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