Temporal assessment of floral diversity and density due to anthropogenic activities and micro climatic variation in Margalla Hills National Park, Islamabad (T-1278) (MFN 4261)

Abstract

Microclimates nurture wide varieties of plants and animals.The change of environemetnal conditions may lead to either growth or reduction in the number of species and to changes in floral complosition. Protected areas are designed to safeguard the rich diversity of plants and animal life on earth. Pakistan is prone to microclimatic variations affecting plant diversity and density as it is already vulnerable to extreme climatic variations. Fifteen forest strands in Margalla hill national park were selected in order to assess the change of floral species in the year 2000and 2013. Point Center Quartered method was used to carry out the study and it was further aided with the instruments such as compass,GPS,clinometer and altimeter.This study determined the location wise Species richness (R), Diversity (H), Equitability (J) and Concentration of Dominance (CD). Also, the location wise data regarding microclimate variables i.e. soil type, soil PH, soil moisture content, average rainfall, average humidity, average sunshine hours and mean temperature, and anthropogenic pressures in order to assess the floral species change during the two selected years.Thestudy revealed that due to microclimatic variation and anthropogenicactivities few invasive species like paper mulberry,Broussonetiapapyrifera, Cannabissativaare replacing the native species such as Acacia catechu,Carallumaedulis present in MHNP.