Plant Diversity, Tree Regeneration, Biomass Production and Carbon Storage in Different Oak Forests on Ridge Tops of Garhwal Himalaya

The present study was conducted on ridge tops of moist temperate Oak forests in Garhwal Himalaya to assess the plant diversity, regeneration, biomass production and carbon assimilation in different Oak forests. For this purpose, three Oak forest types viz., (a) Quercus leucotrichophora or Banj Oak (FT1; between 1,428-2,578 m asl), (b) Quercus floribunda or Moru Oak (FT2; between 2,430-2,697 m asl) and (c) Quercus semecarpifolia or Kharsu Oak (FT3; between 2,418-3,540 m asl) were selected on different ridge tops in Bhagirathi catchment area of Garhwal Himalaya. A total of 91 plant species including 23 trees (8 gymnosperms and 15 angiosperms), 21 shrubs and 47 herbs species belonging to 46 families were recorded from all the ridge top Oak forests. The highest mean tree density ($607{\pm}33.60trees\;ha^{-1}$) was observed in Q. floribunda forest with lower mean total basal cover (TBC) value ($48.02{\pm}3.67m^2ha^{-1}$), whereas highest TBC value ($80.16{\pm}3.30m^2ha^{-1}$) was recorded for Q. semecarpifolia forest, with lowest mean stem density ($594{\pm}23.43stems\;ha^{-1}$). The total biomass density (TBD) across three Oak forests ranged between $497.32{\pm}83.70$ (FT1) and $663.16{\pm}93.85t\;ha^{-1}$ (FT3), while the total carbon density (TCD) values ranged between $228.75{\pm}22.27$ (FT1) and $304.31{\pm}18.12t\;ha^{-1}$ (FT3). Most of the tree species were found with good regeneration (GR) status (average 45%) in all the forest types whereas, few species were found not regenerating (NR) (average 17%) however, few new recruitments were also recorded. ANOVA (Post-Hoc Tukey's test at 5% significance level) indicated significant forest-wise differences in TBC, TBD and TCD (in tree layer); family and evenness (in shrub layer only) values, while insignificant differences were noticed in density values of tree, seedling and herb layer.