Background:Appraisal of arid land status is very crucial one to know the extent and factors associated with their degradation.Previous studies from arid regions are mostly qualitative in nature(indicator assessment li...Background:Appraisal of arid land status is very crucial one to know the extent and factors associated with their degradation.Previous studies from arid regions are mostly qualitative in nature(indicator assessment like good,moderate,severe,and very severe)and generally overlooked the significance of temporal fluctuation.Methods:In this study,the temporal status of 12 Indian arid lands was accessed by using a new integrated approach that includes attributes like relative converge score(RCS),herbaceous component score(HCS),soil quality indexModified(SQI),ecosystem monitoring value(EMV),and a modified bare patch index.From each land,data were collected during three seasonal events(pulse,inter-pulse,and non-pulse),and thus,status was evaluated with 36 observations.Data were analyzed by using frequency distribution,principal component analysis(PCA),student t test,and regression technique.Results:RCS and HCS were recorded minimum(0.005,0.65)during non-pulse event and maximum(0.36,1.79)during pulse event respectively.With this approach,multi-directional temporal status of lands identified that were grouped into lower(7),moderate(14),high(12),and very high(3)quality lands.Conclusion:This integrated study suggested that in arid regions,although rainfall triggers plant community composition,however,sole utilization of this parameter is unable to portray the true status of lands,and other physical(soil)and biotic(livestock and other anthropogenic)parameters are equally important and influential during other events.展开更多
基金We sincerely thankful to UGC-CAS,DST-FIST for financial support to the Department of Botany of JNV University.
文摘Background:Appraisal of arid land status is very crucial one to know the extent and factors associated with their degradation.Previous studies from arid regions are mostly qualitative in nature(indicator assessment like good,moderate,severe,and very severe)and generally overlooked the significance of temporal fluctuation.Methods:In this study,the temporal status of 12 Indian arid lands was accessed by using a new integrated approach that includes attributes like relative converge score(RCS),herbaceous component score(HCS),soil quality indexModified(SQI),ecosystem monitoring value(EMV),and a modified bare patch index.From each land,data were collected during three seasonal events(pulse,inter-pulse,and non-pulse),and thus,status was evaluated with 36 observations.Data were analyzed by using frequency distribution,principal component analysis(PCA),student t test,and regression technique.Results:RCS and HCS were recorded minimum(0.005,0.65)during non-pulse event and maximum(0.36,1.79)during pulse event respectively.With this approach,multi-directional temporal status of lands identified that were grouped into lower(7),moderate(14),high(12),and very high(3)quality lands.Conclusion:This integrated study suggested that in arid regions,although rainfall triggers plant community composition,however,sole utilization of this parameter is unable to portray the true status of lands,and other physical(soil)and biotic(livestock and other anthropogenic)parameters are equally important and influential during other events.
