International Journal of Ecology and Environmental Sciences 27:
13-21, 2001
© International Scientific Publications, New Delhi
Diversity and Dominance of Liverworts of Chopta-Tunganath in the
Garhwal Himalaya
Hans Raj Negi
ABSTRACT
A total of 369 colonies of terricolous (soil-borne) liverworts from 13 plots of 50 m ×
10 m dimensions, distributed across five macrohabitat (vegetation) types along the
gradients of disturbance and elevation (1400 -3700 m) in Chopta-Tunganath landscape of
Garhwal Himalaya, yielded 13 families with 15 genera and 19 species. While Scapania
verrucosa, Plagiochila ferruginea and Pellia endiviifolia have emerged as
the most dominant species, Jungermannia crenulata and Apometzgeria pubescens
exhibited as the least dominant (rare) members of the community of liverworts. While
rarefaction method was used to compare the macrohabitats with respect to the richness
(alpha-diversity) of liverwort flora, change of composition of diversity across the plots
(beta-diversity) was measured employing the Jaccard's index of similarity. Regression
models were used to interpret the data on the reliability of using higher taxon ranks such
as the genera for predicting the species diversity. Simulations were carried out based on
randomization process, so as to ensure if the observed complementarity relationships
across the taxonomic hierarchies were by chance alone. Amongst the macrohabitats, higher
altitude (3400 m3700 m) grasslands and high altitude (2900 m3200 m) mixed forests with
dominant tree species of Rhododendron turned out to have the highest numbers of
species, genera and families of liverworts followed by middle altitude (2500 m2800 m)
Quercus forest, lower altitude (1500 m) Quercus forest and then the paddy fields at 1400 m
above mean sea level. Significantly positive relationships between species, genus and
family level alpha as well as beta diversities imply that higher taxonomic ranks such as
genera and families may be used as surrogates of species for the time and cost-effective
long term periodic monitoring of bio-diversity of liverworts. While unregulated local land
use practices such as agriculture, deforestation, fire and tourism activities may
adversely affect the liverwort communities, traditionally regulated seasonal livestock
grazing in the alpine pastures seem to have no marked impact.
Key Words: Alpha-diversity, Beta-diversity, Liverworts, Livestock grazing,
Macrohabitats, Rarefaction, Taxon rank surrogacy, Garhwal Himalaya.