Plant Diversity of Phulchoki Area, Central Nepal

Abstract

The present study aims to find out the relationship between species richness along elevational gradient and forest types. The study was carried out in Phulchoki hill of Lalitpur district. In the study three types of forest have been categorized viz. Castanopsis Broadleaved forest,Mixed Broadleaved forest and Quercus semecarpifolia forest. The sampling plots wereconductedfrom lower altitude at 1600 m to the upper elevation at 2650 m. Fourquadrats of the size 10m×10 m was laid horizontally at interval of 100 meachon elevational band of 100m. Plant species were collected from July to August 2013. From the study a total of 230 plant species belonging to 185 genera and 84 families were recorded. Among 84 families Asteraceae was found to be the largest having 14 genera and 16 species each.From the total life forms of plants the angiospermic species richness isnearly equals in Mixed Broadleaved forest and Quercus semecarpifolia forest. From the overall IVI of tree species Quercussemecarpifolia was the dominant tree species with the highest importance value index(51.53), followed by Castanopsis tribuloides (34.38).The cause of the changes of species richness in different forest types may be due to changes in environmental factors. But there isincreasing trend of species richness along elevation. The Detrended correspondence analysis(DCA) diagram showed complete turnover of the species i.e., the axis length 4.05 SD units along environmental variables which showed that species is highly heterogenous and rich in beta diversity.On the basis of recorded species,it can be concluded that the study a rearich in plant diversity. Keywords: Species richness, forest types, elevational gradient, importance value index,detrended correspondence analysis