Geo-spatial approach for phytodiversity characterization in Panna National Park (part), M.P. (India)

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123

J. Indian Soc. Remote Sens. (March 2009) 37:51–67

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Geo-spatial Approach for Phytodiversity Characterization in Panna National Park (part), M.P. (India) Garima Porwal . Sarnam Singh

Received : 6 June 2008 / Accepted: 26 February 2009

Keywords Geo-spatial . Remote sensing . Phytodiversity characterization . Panna national park . Disturbance regimes . Biological richness

Abstract Panna National Park is situated in the north-central part of Madhya Pradesh, India. Landscape parameters like fragmentation, porosity, patchiness and jaxtaposition have been analysed for disturbance gradient characterization. Disturbance on biodiversity due to human activities has been studied both qualitatively and quantitatively. The species richness is highest in northern mixed dry

Garima Porwal1 . Sarnam Singh2 ( ) 1 Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA, 94132 U.S.A. 2 Forestry & Ecology Division, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (NRSC), Department of Space, ISRO, 4, Kalidas Road, Dehradun – 248001, India

email : [email protected]

deciduous forest followed by dry deciduous open scrub and southern tropical dry deciduous teak forest. Species richness of the open thorny dry deciduous forest with grasses is found to be the lowest. Disturbance analysis indicates that 22.02% of the southern slightly moist teak forests are highly disturbed whereas Anogeissus forest and Riverine forest have 17.04% and 12.41% of the area under high disturbance, respectively. A total of 88 field sample plots were laid to enumerate trees, shrubs, herbs, climbers, etc. Biological richness parameters such as Shannon-Wiener biodiversity index, biodiversity value, ecosystem uniqueness were derived from field data. High biological richness is found in northern mixed dry deciduous forest and mixed dry deciduous forest with bamboo. More than 99% of such areas are falling under medium to high biological richness. Nearly 55% of the gentle and flat to gentle, slope categories were found to have low biological richness.

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Phytosociological analysis of sampled field data indicated that the number of trees per unit area is the lowest in the Savannah. In inaccessible areas, the species richness and number of trees per unit area is very high. Main forces causing disturbance are search for diamonds, dams on river Ken, settlements in and around the park, grazing and resource utilization by villagers for fodder, animal grazing, fuel-wood, timber, etc.

Introduction The sustainable management of natural resources is a key issue for survival of life on earth. In this effort, conservation of biodiversity has been put up at the highest priority through Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD). It is realized that the threats and vulnerability to the species/ecosystem are greatest in recent times mainly due to over exploitation of biological resources. However, natural hazards because of their adverse impacts also contribute to the loss of biodiversity. A protected area (PA) network has been establ