Title: Species Diversity among Two Forests of Nainital, Kumaun Himalaya
Abstract:Biodiversity has recently emerged as an issue of both scientific and political concern primarily because of an increase in extinction rates caused by human activities. Species richness patterns in rel...Biodiversity has recently emerged as an issue of both scientific and political concern primarily because of an increase in extinction rates caused by human activities. Species richness patterns in relation to the environment need to be understood before drawing conclusions on the effect of biodiversity in ecosystem processes. An attempt has been done to estimate species richness among two different forest types aroundNainital.Two site were selected Kelakhan, Oak (Quercus leucotrichophora A. Camus.) and Pines, Pine (Pinus roxburghii Sarg.) in Nainital region.The collected plants specimens were indentified with the help of different floras and manuscripts, standard literature and to estimate the species richness Menhinick's index were used.After extensive field survey 70 species in Oak forest Kailakhan, Nainital were recorded, Out of which 15 species were trees, 13 shrubs, 40 herbs and 2 climbers and 55 species in pine forest, pines, Nainital were recorded out of which 08 species were trees, 15 shrubs, 29 herbs and 3 climbers Present study shows that Oak forest have high species richness of tree (1.79)and herbs (4.78) in comparison of Pine forest while in case of shrub (2.02) and climber (0.40) pine forest showing maximum species richness than oak forest.Read More