scholarly journals Geophysical upheavals and evolutionary diversification of plant species in the Himalaya

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumar Manish ◽  
Maharaj K. Pandit
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Diversity ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Endemic Plant ◽  
Evolutionary Diversification ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Arid Conditions ◽  
Five Phases ◽  
Physiological Isolation ◽  
The Himalaya

The Himalaya is one of the youngest and the loftiest mountain chains of the world; it is also referred to as the water tower of Asia. The Himalayan region harbors nearly 10,000 plant species constituting approximately 2.5% of the global angiosperm diversity of which over 4,000 are endemics. The present-day Himalayan flora consists of an admixture of immigrant taxa and diversified species over the last 40 million years. The interesting questions about the Himalayan flora discussed here are: how did the Himalaya achieve high endemic plant diversity starting with immigrant taxa and what were the main drivers of this diversity? This contribution aims to answer these questions and raise some more. We review and analyze existing information from diverse areas of earth and climate sciences, palaeobiology and phytogeography to evolve a bio-chronological record of plant species divergence and evolution in the Himalaya. From the analysis we infer the effects of major environmental upheavals on plant diversity in the region. The understanding developed in the following discussion is based on the idea that Himalaya experienced at least five phases of major geophysical upheavals, namely: (i) mega-collision between India and Eurasian plates, (ii) tectonic uplift in phases and progressive landform elevation, (iii) onset of southwest (SW) Indian monsoon, (iv) spurring of arid conditions in Central Asia, and (v) cyclic phases of cooling and warming in the Quaternary. The geophysical upheavals that were potentially disrupting for the ecosystem stability had a key role in providing impetus for biological diversification. The upheavals produced new geophysical environments, new ecological niches, imposed physical and physiological isolation barriers, acted as natural selection sieves and led to the formation of new species. This contribution aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of the plant biodiversity profile of the Himalaya in the context of complex, interconnected and dynamic relationship between earth system processes, climate and plant diversity.

scholarly journals USE OF SOME ETHNOMEDICINAL HERBS BY THE NATIVES OF SOLANG VALLEY, KULLU DISTRICT, HIMACHAL PRADESH

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maninder Kaur ◽  
Vijay Kumar Singhal ◽  
Jaswant Singh
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Diversity ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Ethnobotanical Study ◽  
Endemic Plant ◽  
Medicinal Uses ◽  
Vernacular Names ◽  
Plant Parts ◽  
Medicinal Use

Objective: The objective of the study was to enlist the ethnobotanical uses of wild plants of Solang Valley, Kullu District, Himachal Pardesh. Due to the specific geographical location of the valley, it possesses a high amount of endemic plant diversity. The plants are being used medically by local people against many ailments such as rheumatism, gastric disorders, muscular pain, asthma, dysentery, diabetes, constipation, cold, cough, fever, etc.Methods: For documentation of ethnomedicinal information, a questionnaire containing vernacular name, plant part/s used, medicinal uses, method of preparation and amount of dose taken was prepared. To gather such information, personal interviews/interactions were conducted with medicine men (vaids and hakims), local healers, village elders, tribals and shepherds.Results: Presently, 42 plant species belonging to 41 genera and 24 families are included for ethnobotanical study with respect to their scientific names, vernacular names, plant parts used, ethnomedicinal purposes, mode of preparation, and dose/amount taken. As many as 23 species are used for treating more than one ailment. By consulting the previous literature, it was found that there are 19 species which have not been reported earlier and are used by the natives for different medicinal purposes.Conclusion: The unsustainable harvesting such as uprooting of whole plant of medicinal use from the wild is resulting into a serious decline in plant populations. Therefore various cultivation techniques should be designed, and implemented especially for the highly medicinally important and endangered plant species. Grazing should be restricted in high altitudinal zones possessing high endemic plant diversity. Further, information gathered on ethnobotanical aspects of plants of medicinal use will be helpful in the selection of elite genotypes/chemotypes which could provide a base for future plantation programmes which will be helpful for sustainable development of the valley.

scholarly journals Review on Plant Diversity Status and Conservation Practices in Nepal

Patan Pragya ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Sudha Joshi Shrestha
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Diversity ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
In Situ Conservation ◽  
Ex Situ ◽  
Conservation Practices ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Endemic Plant ◽  
Natural Habitats

Plant diversity plays the crucial role in maintaining the ecosystem and sustaining the life in the globe. Nepal lying in central Himalaya and at the crossroad of two phytogeographicregionsisbestowed with rich biodiversity. Though the country occupies about 0.1% of global land area but comprises 3.2% of world’s known flora. Biodiversity is eroding because of many factors such as habitat loss, deforestation, infrastructure development, over exploitation for human use, invasion by alien species, global climate change and natural calamities, thus threatening the existence in globe. Nepal has adopted both in-situ and ex-situ conservation practices to conserve the biodiversity and maintain the ecosystem in nature. A network of 20 protected areas is established and national forests under different categories are under protection to conserve the biodiversity in their natural habitats. Scientific forest management was initiated to enhance the forest productivity and conserve biodiversity. Botanical gardens in different localities are established for the conservation of rare, endangered, threatened and endemic plant species. Moreover, Government of Nepal has enlisted some plant species in Government protection list and CITES appendices to prevent them from degradation. Thirty three plant species with medicinal values are prioritized for research and economic development of the nation. Nepal’s approach in conservation of plant diversity is commendable and is at the forefront in in-situ conservation practice. However, a considerable number of plants species that are rare, threatened, endemic are also found outside the protected are as and need to be conserved.

scholarly journals Meiotic Studies, Pollen Fertility and Seed Set of Trillium govanianum, an Endangered Endemic Plant Species of the Himalaya

CYTOLOGIA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-249
Author(s):  
Kausar Rashid ◽  
Sufiya Rashid ◽  
Aijaz Hassan Ganie ◽  
Irshad A. Nawchoo ◽  
Anzar A. Khuroo
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Pollen Fertility ◽  
Seed Set ◽  
Endemic Plant ◽  
Trillium Govanianum ◽  
Endemic Plant Species ◽  
The Himalaya

scholarly journals Effect of Soil Diversity on Forest Plant Species Abundance: A Case Study from Central-European Highlands

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 534
Author(s):  
Pavel Samec ◽  
Jiří Volánek ◽  
Miloš Kučera ◽  
Pavel Cudlín
Keyword(s):  
Soil Properties ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Diversity ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Plant Distribution ◽  
Soil Diversity ◽  
Abiotic Environment ◽  
Soil Group ◽  
Biogeographical Regions ◽  
Forest Distribution

Plant distribution is most closely associated with the abiotic environment. The abiotic environment affects plant species’ abundancy unevenly. The asymmetry is further deviated by human interventions. Contrarily, soil properties preserve environmental influences from the anthropogenic perturbations. The study examined the supra-regional similarities of soil effects on plant species’ abundance in temperate forests to determine: (i) spatial relationships between soil property and forest-plant diversity among geographical regions; (ii) whether the spatial dependencies among compared forest-diversity components are influenced by natural forest representation. The spatial dependence was assessed using geographically weighted regression (GWR) of soil properties and plant species abundance from forest stands among 91 biogeographical regions in the Czech Republic (Central Europe). Regional soil properties and plant species abundance were acquired from 7550 national forest inventory plots positioned in a 4 × 4 km grid. The effect of natural forests was assessed using linear regression between the sums of squared GWR residues and protected forest distribution in the regions. Total diversity of forest plants is significantly dependent on soil-group representation. The soil-group effect is more significant than that of bedrock bodies, most of all in biogeographical regions with protected forest representation >50%. Effects of soil chemical properties were not affected by protected forest distribution. Spatial dependency analysis separated biogeographical regions of optimal forest plant diversity from those where inadequate forest-ecosystem diversity should be increased alongside soil diversity.

scholarly journals Evaluation metrics and validation of presence-only species distribution models based on distributional maps with varying coverage

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamil Konowalik ◽  
Agata Nosol
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Niche Modeling ◽  
Niche Modeling ◽  
Ecological Niches ◽  
Herbarium Specimens ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Environmental Niche ◽  
Endemic Plant ◽  
Distribution Models ◽  
Environmental Niche Modeling ◽  
Almost All

AbstractWe examine how different datasets, including georeferenced hardcopy maps of different extents and georeferenced herbarium specimens (spanning the range from 100 to 85,000 km2) influence ecological niche modeling. We check 13 of the available environmental niche modeling algorithms, using 30 metrics to score their validity and evaluate which are useful for the selection of the best model. The validation is made using an independent dataset comprised of presences and absences collected in a range-wide field survey of Carpathian endemic plant Leucanthemum rotundifolium (Compositae). Our analysis of models’ predictive performances indicates that almost all datasets may be used for the construction of a species distributional range. Both very local and very general datasets can produce useful predictions, which may be more detailed than the original ranges. Results also highlight the possibility of using the data from manually georeferenced archival sources in reconstructions aimed at establishing species’ ecological niches. We discuss possible applications of those data and associated problems. For the evaluation of models, we suggest employing AUC, MAE, and Bias. We show an example of how AUC and MAE may be combined to select the model with the best performance.

scholarly journals Mauritian coloured nectar no longer a mystery: a visual signal for lizard pollinators

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis M Hansen ◽  
Karin Beer ◽  
Christine B Müller
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Visual Signal ◽  
Honest Signal ◽  
Endemic Plant ◽  
Floral Trait ◽  
Flower Visitation ◽  
Artificial Flowers ◽  
Endemic Plant Species

Most floral nectars are clear as water, and the enigmatic coloured nectar in three endemic plant species in Mauritius has puzzled scientists studying it. One hypothesis about the possible ecological function of coloured nectar is that it serves as a visual signal for pollinators. Recent studies have shown that at least two of the three Mauritian plant species with coloured nectar are visited and pollinated by endemic Phelsuma geckos. We here provide experimental evidence for the visual signal hypothesis by showing that Phelsuma ornata geckos prefer coloured over clear nectar in artificial flowers. In flowering plants, coloured nectar could additionally function as an honest signal that allows pollinators to assert the presence and judge the size of a reward prior to flower visitation, and to adjust their behaviour accordingly, leading to increased pollinator efficiency. Our study provides a first step in understanding this rare and intriguing floral trait.

scholarly journals Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids and Fatty Acids from the Endemic Plant Species Rindera umbellata and the Effect of Lindelofine-N-oxide on Tubulin Polymerization

Molecules ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 10694-10706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Mandić ◽  
Milena Simić ◽  
Ivan Vučković ◽  
Ljubodrag Vujisić ◽  
Miroslav Novaković ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fatty Acids ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids ◽  
Tubulin Polymerization ◽  
Endemic Plant ◽  
Endemic Plant Species
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