A Detailed Ecological Exploration of the Distribution Patterns of Wild Poaceae from the Jhelum District (Punjab), Pakistan

Muhammad Majeed, Aqil Tariq, Sheikh Marifatul Haq, Muhammad Waheed, Muhammad Mushahid Anwar, Qingting Li, Muhammad Aslam, Sanaullah Abbasi, B. G. Mousa and Ahsan Jamil
Additional contact information
Muhammad Majeed: Department of Botany, Hafiz Hayat Campus, University of Gujrat, Gujrat 50700, Punjab, Pakistan
Aqil Tariq: State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China
Sheikh Marifatul Haq: Department of Botany, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar 190006, India
Muhammad Waheed: Department of Botany, University of Okara, Renala Khurd 56130, Punjab, Pakistan
Muhammad Mushahid Anwar: Department of Geography, Hafiz Hayat Campus, University of Gujrat, Gujrat 50700, Punjab, Pakistan
Qingting Li: Airborne Remote Sensing Center, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China
Muhammad Aslam: School of Computing Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of West of Scotland, Paisley G72 0LH, UK
Sanaullah Abbasi: Department of Biochemistry, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur 66020, Sindh, Pakistan
B. G. Mousa: Mining and Petroleum Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Al-Azhar University, Cairo 11884, Egypt
Ahsan Jamil: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University, 3170S Espina Str., Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the taxonomic diversity, richness, and distribution patterns of Poaceae in relation to abiotic factors in the Jhelum district of the Pakistan Himalayas. We used a random sampling technique from 80 grids within 240 sites with a rich diversity of wild grasses and 720 quadrates in triplets from each site across the Jhelum district between 2019 and 2021 to collect data on grass species and the associated environmental factors and conditions. After evaluating the important value index for each plant taxa and for the environmental data, we analyzed the data using ordination and cluster analysis techniques. Fifty-two Poaceae taxa from twenty-nine genera were recorded within the study area. From a total of 52 recorded Poaceae species, 45 were native and 7 were invasive species. The life form (biological) showed the dominancy of 27 therophyte species, followed by 24 hemicryptophyte species, and 1 geophyte species. Microphyll had the leading leaf size spectra (27 species), followed by nanophyll (12 species), macrophyll (10 species), and leptophyll (3 species). The trend of the life cycle was the maximum (27 spp.) during the monsoon season, followed by spring (11 spp.), winter (8 spp.), and summer (6 spp.). The leading genera were Setaria with 9.61% of the species, followed by Panicum , Cenchrus , and Brachiaria with 7.69% of the species. Aristida and Echinochloa made up 5.76% of the species while Chrysopogon , Digitaria , Eragrostis , Pennisetum , and Poa made up 3.84% of the species. Other genera recorded single species. The leaf size spectra of grasses were dominated by microphylls (50%) followed by nanophylls (23.07%), macrophylls (19.23%), and leptophylls (7.69%). On the basis of the importance value index, the most dominant species was Cynodon dactylon (68), followed by Dichanthium annulatum (58), Brachiaria ramose (38), Dactyloctenium aegyptium (37), Eleusine indica (35), Saccharum bengalense (33), and Cenchrus biflorus (28). Two-way cluster analyses classified the grasses into three plant community associations based on the indicator plant species. Soil parameters as subsamples were tested for moisture, pH, EC, OM, macronutrients (CaCO 3 , N, P, and K), and saturation while the ordination analysis revealed that they had a significant ( p ≤ 0.002) effect on vegetation associations. Overall, this study contributes to a better understanding of the influence of environmental factors on the composition and associations of grass species and the development of scientifically informed management solutions for the ecological restoration of degraded habitats in this Himalayan region.

Keywords: Poaceae; environmental factors; ecological approaches; Pakistan Himalayas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/7/3786/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/7/3786/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:7:p:3786-:d:777789

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().