Floristic composition, biomass and carbon stock of grasslands along elevation gradient in Indian central Himalaya

In worldwide floral spectrum, huge biological diversity contributes Himalayan expanse as a preserver. The current exploration involved central Himalayan grasslands structural and functional scrutiny in the watershed (2B4D6). In grasslands, A total of 120 genera with 146 species of poaceous, cyperaceous, forbs, leguminous herbs and shrubs (bushes) were documented and two associations of plants were reported in herbs and shrubs vegetation. Overall herbage density and basal area (BA) ranged between 907.11 tillers m-2 at E5 and 1072.89 tillers m-2 at E1, 52.97 cm2 m-2 at E5 and 61.51 cm2 m-2 at E1, correspondingly in grasslands. Likewise, overall shrub density and BA differed between 2027.78 and 2888.89 individual ha-1 and 0.46 to 0.58 m2 ha-1, correspondingly at diverse altitudes. Average vegetative biomass i.e. above-ground, below-ground and total of grassland was 3.71, 2.19 and 5.90 Mg ha-1, correspondingly and significantly reduced alongside the growing altitude. Similar trend was reported for biomass C in various constituents due to the fact that C is the biomass fraction. It was reported that C density in soil was 65.88 Mg C ha-1 and grasslands total C density was 68.54 Mg C ha-1. Therefore, Himalayan grasslands preserve a large amount of biological diversity, and accumulate great quantity of C in soil and vegetative biomass.