Quantitative Assessment of Plants in Western Ghats
This work is focused on the entire Western Ghats, which is divided into five regions as shown in the map for the operational convenience. Five Principal investigators enumerates the resources in each of these regions. The entire stretch of Western Ghats is be divided in to 3.75 x 3.75 min which is ~6.25 x 6.25 Km grids. Thus there are total of ~3231 grids and each of the five groups shall work on a set of ~650 of these grids (See map). Each grid would form a sampling unit.
A novel technique of stratifying forest cover based on Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) using remotely sensed images. Classification is based on reflectance value taken over several seasons. Two belt transects of 10 m x 500 m will be laid in each of the 10 km x 10 km grid. This amounts to the 0.01 % of sampling intensity, which is a standard requirement for such enumerations (Shivaraj et al., 2000). In order to revisit these plots for seasonal sampling, latitude, longitude will be noted using a GPS and other geo-climatic features will be recorded. Tree layers will be enumerated in the entire belt and the shrub and herb layers will be enumerated at the beginning and end of the transects by laying sub plots of 10 x10 m for shrubs and 1 x1 m for herbs. The belts would be located such that they incorporate significant environmental gradient of the grid. This is essential to get a representation of the habitat variability. To get more details on methodology click here
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