Phytosociological attributes of plant species and associated environmental factors were measured in order to identify the environmental gradients of major plant communities in the Naran Valley, Himalayas. The valley occupies a distinctive geographical setting on the edge of the Western Himalaya near the Hindukush range and supports a high biodiversity; pastoralism is the main land use. There have been no previous quantitative ecological studies in this region. This study was undertaken to (i) analyze and describe vegetation using classification and ordination techniques, (ii) identify environmental gradients responsible for plant community distributions and (iii) assess the anthropogenic pressures on the vegetation and identify priorities for conservation. Phytosociological characteristics of species were measured alongside environmental variables. A total of 198 species from 68 families were quantified at 144 stations along 24 transects across an elevation range of 2450–4100 m. Correspondence Analysis techniques i.e., Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) and Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) were used to determine vegetation–environment relationships. Results show vegetation changes with altitude from moist-cool temperate communities characterized by woody species, to more dry-cold subalpine and alpine herbaceous communities. Plant species diversity is optimal at middle altitudes (2800–3400 m); at lower altitudes (2400–2800 m) it is reduced by anthropogenic impacts and at higher altitudes (3400–4100 m) by shallow soils and high summer grazing pressure. A large number of plant species of conservation concern were identified in the study and an assessment made of the main threats to their survival.

2. Author's personal copy
Ecological Informatics 14 (2013) 99–103
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Ecological Informatics
journal homepage: www . e lsevie r . com/ locate/ ecolinf
Identifying plant species and communities across environmental gradients in the Western
Himalayas: Method development and conservation use
Shujaul Mulk Khan
a,d,
, Sue Page
b
, Habib Ahmad
c
, David Harper
a,
a Department of Biology University of Leicester, UK
b Department of Geography University of Leicester, UK
c Department of Genetics Hazara University Mansehra, Pakistan
d Department of Botany Hazara University Mansehra, Pakistan
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 16 January 2012 Accepted
30 November 2012 Available online 8
December 2012
Keywords:
Vegetation
Western Himalaya
Classification
Ordination
Environmental gradient
Conservation
a b s t r a c t
Phytosociological attributes of plant species and associated environmental factors were measured in order to identify the
environmental gradients of major plant communities in the Naran Valley, Himalayas. The valley occupies a distinctive
geographical setting on the edge of the Western Himalaya near the Hindukush range and supports a high biodiversity;
pastoralism is the main land use. There have been no previous quantitative ecological studies in this region. This study was
undertaken to (i) analyze and describe vegetation using clas-sification and ordination techniques, (ii) identify environmental
gradients responsible for plant community distributions and (iii) assess the anthropogenic pressures on the vegetation and
identify priorities for conser-vation. Phytosociological characteristics of species were measured alongside environmental
variables. A total of 198 species from 68 families were quantified at 144 stations along 24 transects across an elevation range
of 2450–4100 m. Correspondence Analysis techniques i.e., Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) and Canonical
Correspondence Analysis (CCA) were used to determine vegetation–environment relationships. Results show vegetation
changes with altitude from moist-cool temperate communities characterized by woody species, to more dry-cold subalpine
and alpine herbaceous communities. Plant species diversity is optimal at middle altitudes (2800–3400 m); at lower altitudes
(2400–2800 m) it is reduced by anthropogen-ic impacts and at higher altitudes (3400–4100 m) by shallow soils and high
summer grazing pressure. A large number of plant species of conservation concern were identified in the study and an
assessment made of the main threats to their survival.
© 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Correspondence to: S.M. Khan, Department of Biology University of Leicester, UK. Tel.: +44
7536461784; +92 3349311639.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 7536461784; +92 3349311639. E-mail
address: shuja60@gmail.com (S.M. Khan).
1574-9541/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2012.11.010

3. Author's personal copy
100 S.M. Khan et al. / Ecological Informatics 14 (2013) 99–103