3000 Years Late Holocene Vegetation History and Dynamics of Gymnosperms and Herbs in the Hindu Kush Mountains of District Swat in Northern Pakistan | [Pakistan Journal of Weed Science Research • 2024]

Author(s):

1. Abdur Rauf: Department of Botany, Garden Campus, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan,23200,Pakistan

2. Farooq Jan: Department of Botany, Garden Campus, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan,23200,Pakistan

3. Muhammad Yasin: Gomal Centre of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Gomal University D.I. Khan,29050, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Pakistan

4. Muhammad Qayash: Department of Zoology, Garden Campus, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan,,Pakistan

5. Muhammad Luqman: Department of Botany, Garden Campus, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan,23200,Pakistan

6. Kashif Hayat: Interdisciplinary research academy, Zhejiang Shuren University,Hangzhou,China

7. Fayaz Asad: Department of Botany, Bacha Khan University Charsadda,,Pakistan

8. Ikramullah Khan: Department of Botany, Garden Campus, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan,23200,Pakistan

9. Muhammad Khalid: Department of Biology, College of Science, Mathematics and Technology, Wenzhou-Kean University,Wenzhou,China

Abstract:

This Palaeoecological research project was carried out in the Kabal Valley of Swat District in Northern Pakistan, located in the Hindu Kush Phytogeographic region. Using a hand-operated Russian corer, a 150 cm long terrestrial soil core was taken and radiocarbon-dated. Application of Faegri and Iverson´s 1989 protocol on 38 soil samples (0.5 cm3 each), followed by microscopic counting of preserved pollen on the slides revealed that Conifers like Pinus, Picea and Taxus remained temporally dominant species on these mountains, starting from present time (2022) going back till 500 calibrated years before present (cal.yrs. BP). A drastic decrease in the abundance of Conifers coupled with the simultaneous spread of diferent herb species, belonging to Poaceae, Cyperaceae, and Amaranthaceae families, was found from 500 back till 900 cal. yrs. BP. Further back in the late Holocene period from 900 to 2000 cal. yrs. BP, herbs belonging to Poaceae, Cyperaceae, and Amaranthaceae dominated these mountains with a little cover of Conifers represented by Taxus and Picea. Both Conifers and herbs remained frequent during the past from 2000 to 3000 to cal. yrs. BP. Finally, isolation of the diferent climate indicator species revealed that Pinus (among Conifers) and Poaceae species (among herbs) remained abundant during the past 3300 years, in the temporally fluctuating communities growing on these remote Hindu Kush mountains of South Asia.

Page(s): 206-215

DOI: DOI not available

Published: Journal: Pakistan Journal of Weed Science Research, Volume: 30, Issue: 4, Year: 2024

Keywords:

Keywords are not available for this article.

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