Assessment of Seasonal Dynamicity of Herbaceous Plant Diversity, Phytosociology and Composition in Narmada Canal Command Area of Kachchh District, Gujarat

Abstract

The seasonal phytosociological study in Narmada Canal Command (NCC)
area of Kachchh district has revealed that there is seasonal variation in the herbaceous
plant diversity. The qualitative assessment has shown that in the pre-monsoon season,
165 herbaceous plant species existed in the NCC area in Kachchh. On other hand,
during post-monsoon season a total of 255 herbaceous species were recorded. The
current study has reflected that, the Kachchh NCC area supports some locally rare or
occasional plant species of Gujarat State. Values of density, frequency, abundance and
species composition of herbaceous plants were in the range of 16133.33 ind. ha -1 to 66.67
ind. ha -1 , 32.00% to 0.67%, 10.70 ind. quadrat -1 m -2 to 1.0 ind. quadrat -1 m -2 and 16.85%
to 0.07%, respectively during the pre-monsoon season while during the post-monsoon
season the corresponding values were in the range of 34133.33 ind. ha -1 to 200 ind. ha -1 ,
60.00 % to 1.33 %, 7.73 ind. quadrat -1 m -2 to 1.50 ind. quadrat -1 m -2 and 11.57% to 0.07%,
respectively. In this study, the Simpson Diversity Index was higher (i.e. 0.97) in post-
monsoon season as compared to that in pre-monsoon season (i.e. 0.93) indicating that
the diversity was good in post-monsoon season. The study revealed that the seasonal
dynamicity of herbaceous vegetation may be due to the availability of good habitat in
the arid or semi-arid area of NCC