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Pak. J. Bot., 47(4): 1423-1428, 2015.

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ORDINAL CLASSIFICATION OF VEGETATION ALONG MANGLA DAM, MIRPUR, AJK

RABAIL UROOJ¹, SHEIKH SAEED AHMAD^1*, MUHAMMAD NAUMAN AHMAD² AND SARDAR KHAN³

Abstract: Vegetation plays an important role in ecosystem maintenance. But the construction of dams transform the riparian vegetation into impoundment region. The present study was conducted to identify and quantify herbaceous flora around the vicinity of Mangla dam.  Study area was divided into two zones on the basis of distance from the dam boundary. Pattern of vegetation distribution and their association in area was grouped in to different communities by using ordination techniques. Two ordination techniques TWINSPAN and DECORANA were used. A total of 37 species belonging to 17 families were identified from fifty quadrats. Random sampling was done by using 1 ×1 m sized quadrat. Percentage of vegetation was assessed by using Domin cover scale. TWINSPAN classified two groups and four communities in Zone-I, while in Zone-II two groups and six communities were formed. Dominance curve showed that Cynodon dactylon, Desmostachya bipinnata and Rhynchosia minima were dominant species in Zone-I and Croton bonplandianus, C. dactylon, D. bipinnata and Brachiaria decumbens were frequent species in Zone-II. DCA as indirect multivariate technique based on reciprocal averaging determined the environmental gradients that affect the species richness and also verified the groups of species and indicated four communities in both Zones. Monte Carlo test of significance was used to analyze stress in relation to number of axis/dimensionality under Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMS) through p-value. This study provided the significant results of least abundant and most abundant herbaceous species around the dam which will be helpful for biodiversity conservation and in decision making for further land planning.

Key words: Herbaceous flora; TWINSPAN; DCA; NMS ordination; Dam.

¹Department of Environmental Sciences, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Mall Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

²Department of Agricultural Chemistry, University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan

³Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Peshawar, Pakistan

*Corresponding author’s e-mail: drsaeed@fjwu.edu.pk, 92 321 5167726