Effects of Slope Aspect on Tree and Shrub Diversity of Lesser Himalaya of Garhwal Region, Uttarakhand, India.

A research study was conducted in the Garhwal region of the lesser Himalaya to explore the impact of topographicalaspects on vegetation species diversity. The research was conducted for two years, from January 2021 to December2022. Randomly placed sampling plots of 20 x 20 m were used for trees and 5 x 5m for shrubs in different slopedirections (E, NE, N, NW, W, SW, S, SE) for vegetation analysis. The study revealed the presence of 28 treespecies and 17 shrub species. The north-western slope aspect had the highest diversity of tree species (H’=2.14),while the south-western slope aspect had the highest number of shrub species (H’=2.06). The CD values fortrees in the south-western slope aspect (0.41) and shrubs in the northern slope aspect (0.23) were the highest.The study found that an area’s topographical aspects significantly impact plants’ diversity and spatial distribution.For trees, the north-western slope aspect had the highest evenness value (0.86) and the western slope aspect hadthe highest species richness (2.92). On the other hand, for shrubs, the northern slope aspect had the highestevenness value (0.96), and the north-eastern slope aspect had the highest species richness (2.18). In conclusion,the north-western slope aspect was more diverse for trees, while the south-western slope aspect was more diversefor shrubs.