Biodiversity of Kargil Cold Desert in the Ladakh Himalaya

Abstract

Biological diversity has long been a source of wonderment and scientific curiosity, but it is now increasingly a source of concern. We attempted to classify, map, and characterize vegetation and its biodiversity content using satellite imagery and field enumeration in the cold desert of the Kargil-Ladakh region located in the Western Himalaya, India. Fair-weather, multi-temporal IRS-P6 LISS III data were subjected to visual interpretation, which estimated rocky barren land as the dominant land cover, followed by vegetation (alpine pasture, alpine scrub, agroforest, and subalpine forest) and snow cover. Asteraceae was reported as the most speciose family, numbering more species than genera. Artemisia emerged as the most speciose genus. Species diversity decreased with increasing altitude, but the maximum was found at transition zones of agroforest and alpine scrub. The highest species similarity was observed between alpine scrub and alpine pastures, indicating pronounced intermixing and interaction. The detailed updated map (at a scale of 1:50,000) with extensive field observation would overcome a long-pending gap in ecological study in the region and may also be used as baseline data for conservation and planning, and the region may serve as a natural ecological laboratory for climate change studies.