Abstract:
The relative effects of climate warming with grazing on medicinally important plants are not
fully understood in Hindukush-Himalaya (HKH) region. Therefore, we combined theindigenous
knowledge about culturally important therapeutic plants and climate change with
experimental warming (open-top chambers) and manual clipping (simulated grazing effect)
and compared therelative difference on aboveground biomass and percent cover of plant
species atfive alpine meadow sites on an elevation gradient (4696 m-3346 m) from 2016—
2018. Experimental warming increased biomass and percent cover throughout the experiment.
However, the interactive treatment effect (warmingx clipping) was significant on biomass
butnoton percent cover. These responses were taxa specific. Warming induced an
increase of1 + 0.6% in Bistorta officinalis percent cover while for Poa alpina it was 18.7 +
4.9%. Contrastingly, clipping had a marginally significant effect in reducing the biomass and
cover of all plant species. Clipping treatment reduced vegetation cover& biomass by 2.3%
and 6.26%, respectively, but that was not significant due to the high variability among taxa
response atdifferent sites. It was found that clipping decreased the effects of warming in
interactive plots. Thus, warming may increase the availability of therapeutic plants for indigenous
people while overgrazing would have deteriorating effects locally. The findings of this
research illustrate that vegetation sensitivity to warming and overgrazing is likely to affect
man—environment relationships, and traditional knowledge ona regional scale.
