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Floristic composition and phenology of temperate grasslands of Western Himalaya as affected by scraping, fire and heavy grazing

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Abstract

This paper reports the analysis of floristic composition and phenology of protected, annually scraped and fired, and heavily grazed grasslands community of Western Himalaya.

  1. 2.

    A total of 19, 20 and 23 species were recorded at protected (S1), annually scraped and fired (S2) and heavily grazed (S3) sites respectively.

  2. 3.

    Domination of therophytic flora as indicated by biological spectrum study, was noted in all the three sites.

  3. 4.

    Density of plants reached a maximum in the rainy season and amounted to be 4300.5, 3439.8 and 3298.0 tillers/m2 on S1, S2 and S3 respectively.

  4. 5.

    Maximum total basal cover was also recorded in the rainy season and amounted to be 769.9, 3390.6 and 2295.7 cm2/m2 on S1, S2 and S3 respectively.

  5. 6.

    Correlation between density and basal cover was positive on all three sites.

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Agrawal, A.K. Floristic composition and phenology of temperate grasslands of Western Himalaya as affected by scraping, fire and heavy grazing. Vegetatio 88, 177–187 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00044834

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