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Spatio-temporal variation and climate change impact on regeneration of Chir pine in subtropical pine forests in Pakistan
Abstract
Sub-tropical Chir pine forests are one of the most important forest ecosystems. Unfortunately, our forests are depleting at alarming rate. To address this problem, this study was designed. The study area was District Rawalpindi, including Murree, Kahuta and Kotli Sattian, the study was conducted to find out regeneration of Chir pine in district Rawalpindi through Spatio-temporal changes. The temporal changes were detected between 1999-2024 (2004-2009, 2009-2014, 2014-2019 and 2019-2024) by using satellites namely MODIS, Land Sat 8 and Sentinel 2 respectively. The trend in Chir pine cover during 1999-2004 was moderate, dense Chir pine cover was highest covering an area of 396 km2. This positive trend was due to less deforestation. In 2004-2009 a slight decrease in dense Chir pine cover was observed, the reason for negative trend was deforestation or land use changes, in between 2009-2014 a dense Chir pine area remained largely stable due to local conservation efforts or natural growth in certain areas and less Chir pine area increased from previous years, 2014-2019 highest value of dense Chir pine cover was recorded as 634 km2. This shift reflects ecological restoration projects or changes in local land management practices, in years 2019-2024 dense Chir pine forests showing decrease in some pockets due to fire, and moderate dense Chir pine increased.
