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MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF ROADSIDE VEGETATION ALONG MOTORWAY (M-1), PAKISTAN

SHEIKH SAEED AHMAD^*, SAIRA KHAN AND SUMMRA ERUM

Abstract: The present research was undertaken to study vegetation along Motorway (M-1) from Rawalpindi to Attock district (90 km) in Pakistan. Braun-Blanquet’s approach was used for the phytosociological survey. Classification techniques like TWINSPAN (Two Way indicator species analysis) and DCA (Detrended Correspondence Analysis) were used to classify the vegetation data. Floristic data was collected from 40 sites at a distance of 10 km on each side of motorway. A total of 45 plant species belonging to 23 families were recorded. TWINSPAN divided the whole flora into two major and fourteen sub-communities. Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) identifies clusters of species in ordinate space and verifies groups of species identified by TWINSPAN method. A DCA analysis of all the plots maintained a coherency with vegetation types identified by TWINSPAN. This survey based study provides baseline knowledge regarding roadside vegetation and would be helpful in future for Conservation of biodiversity along the road verges and improvement of road verges of M-1.

Department of Environmental Sciences, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

^*Corresponding author e-mal:  drsaeed@fjwu.edu.pk, 00 92 0321 5167726