Potential distribution of oak forests in the central Himalayas and implications for future ecosystem services supply to rural communities

Niyati Naudiyal and Joachim Schmerbeck

Ecosystem Services, 2021, vol. 50, issue C

Abstract: Oak forests are an ecologically and socio-economically valuable late-successional forest formation of central Himalaya. We used niche modelling to identify the potential distribution of oak forests in Uttarakhand, India and estimated the possible changes in the availability of ecosystem services (ES) from oak forests in a scenario without human disturbance. Quantification of provisioning ES and carbon density was done by field-based household and vegetation assessments respectively. Carbon density was estimated using allometric equations provided by the Forest Survey of India. We found that the region has a much higher potential to support oak than its current distribution. In a no-disturbance scenario, under current climatic conditions, we estimate a 170.6% increase (current area 14741 ha, potential area 39899 ha) in the coverage of dense oak forests which would result in a 60.3% increase in carbon stock, a 90.69% increase in non-wood forest products, a 75.04% increase in fuelwood and fodder, and a 54.83% increase in the supply of small diameter wood. In order to increase the provision of ES in the study area the best-suited course of action would be to support the succession of current pine, pine-oak, and open-oak forests to late-successional dense-oak forest community.

Keywords: Quercus leucotrichophora; Himalaya; Potential Vegetation; Niche-modelling; Ecosystem services; Succession (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041621000681
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:50:y:2021:i:c:s2212041621000681

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101310

Access Statistics for this article

Ecosystem Services is currently edited by Leon C Braat

More articles in Ecosystem Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().