PJB-2013-393
ASSESSING POTENTIAL HABITATS OF KASHMIR MARKHOR IN CHITRAL GOL NATIONAL PARK, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN
MASOOD ARSHAD1*, RIFFAT NASEEM MALIK2 AND ZAFEER SAQIB3
Abstract
Since the recognition of Chitral Gol as a National Park, there has been no vegetation assessment of the area, particularly in context of the habitat of Kashmir markhor (Capra falconeri cashmiriensis). Therefore, the present study is a first ever attempt to elaborate the vegetation of Park as habitat of Kashmir markhor using multivariate statistical methods. The vegetation abundance data was systematically collected from the park area on a grid with 200m vertical and 400m horizontal spacing, resulting in 252 nested sampled plots for each of the tree (10mx10m), shrub (4mx4m) and herbaceous layers (1mx1m). The data were analyzed for possible natural grouping using TWINSPAN classification analysis that resulted in 4 vegetation communities viz., (i) Prangos pabularia – Hypericum perforatum – Rosa macrophylla community, (ii) Cedrus deodara – Pinus gerardiana – Rosa macrophylla community, (iii) Quercus baloot – Sophora mollis – Artemisia fragrans community and (iv) Artemisia fragrans – Agrostis canina – Iris hookeriana community. The ordination using Detrended correspondence analysis and regressing its scores with primary topographic attributes revealed that the altitude, (p
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