Biodiversity Assessment and its Effect on the Environment of Shakarparian Forest

Shakarparian is known for its scenic beauty and wilderness and has a significant recreational value. It is a part of Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP), Islamabad and can be a good recourse to conduct various environmental studies. This study was aimed to explore the overall biodiversity of Shakarparian forest in terms of flora and its associated fauna. Phytosociological survey was carried out in order to identify the existing plant communities. The plant associations were then correlated to the existing fauna of the area. The results will provide the baseline data to support further studies on biodiversity analysis of ecologically rich natural recourse base of our country. A total of 155 Animal species have been observed in the study area. Out of these species 23 species of Mammals, 104 of Birds, 22 of Reptiles and 6 species of Amphibians have been recorded. The dominating plant species of the zone are Cassia fistula , Carrisa apeca , and Lantana camara.


INTRODUCTION
. Margalla Hills National Park consists of dry and semi-evergreen vegetation and is a habitat to numerous species of animals and birds because it combines three types of landscapes. Therefore, it offers outstanding recreational and educational opportunities to the people of our country. About a hundred thousand visitors from Pakistan and abroad, visit the MHNP each year. With only five percent of land area in Pakistan under forest cover and very few parks, MHNP is an exceptional natural asset. However, poor capture of revenues and limited budgetary allocations limit its potential and underscore the need of new strategies to help in maintaining this park efficiently.
The park area has rugged topography and elevation ranges from 457 to 610 meters which comprises mainly of steep slopes and gullies, where rock structure is mainly lime stone. The soil of the area is derived from wind, water laid deposits and sedimentary rocks. The sub-soil is usually calcified or calcareous silt loam (Shinwari and Khan, 2001). The conventional biodiversity definition does not only mean number of species, it also represents the discipline of biology of whole organism systematic ecology, behavior and field of comparative biology. Because of acceleration in environmental degradation, the global biodiversity losses in recent decades are interesting (Craft, 1995). Around 174 mammal species have been reported in Pakistan. Out of these there are at least three endemic species and a number of endemic and near endemic sub-species. Six hundred and sixty eight bird species have been recorded in Pakistan. Out of them three hundred and seventy five were recorded as breeding. A total of fourteen species of turtles, ninety of lizards and sixty five of snakes have been reported, while thirteen species are believed to be endemic. Being a semi-arid country, only twenty two species of amphibians have been recorded, of which nine species are endemic. Pakistan has one hundred and ninety eight native and introduced fresh water fish species (GoP, 1999).

No
detailed study in phytosociology in the study area is found in the literature; however, reports suggest that the vegetation of area is thickly covered with a variety of species. The overall vegetation is dominated by herbs, shrubs and trees. Around sixteen species of herb/grasses are found in the area and shrubs make a second larger cover in the area with around 15 species. The tree cover with at least nine tree species makes the forest thickly populated in the area which provides an ideal condition for faunal species to inhibit the area (IUCN, 1991).

Objectives
The present study was designed to gather information about existing flora in the study area enabling to better understand the biodiversity of Shakarparian. Currently, very scattered information about flora is available related to this area. We therefore prepared an inventory of different vegetation types present in Shakarparian forest resort. We estimated the percentage cover, density and frequency of vegetation present, and recorded and enlisted associated fauna of major plants associations.

Environmental Assessment Parameters
The air quality parameters were studied in the Shakarparian and in urban Islamabad. For this purpose, three sites in both of the regions were selected for the sampling and assessment of parameters. The average of these three readings was considered as the main reading of the region. The sampling sites in urban Islamabad were Chowk Abpara, Industrial area I-9 and Pirwadhai. In Shakarparian forest resort three points were marked as S-East, S-west and S-South. The average of three points in Shakarparian was considered as the data of Shakarparian and the average of three points of Islamabad was considered as the data of urban Islamabad.

Vegetation Analyses
The vegetation type of the Margalla Hills National Park is the type found in subtropical dry semievergreen zones. Acacia and Olive (Olea ferruginea) are dominant. The overall vegetation is scrub forest dominated by certain shrubs as Dodonaea viscose, Justicia adhatoda and Carissa opaca (GoP, 1999). Considering the shrubby vegetation of the area, "Line Transect Method" was used for the measurement of vegetation cover and composition while density. The frequency was determined by using Quadrates of varying sizes. The selection of quadrate size was determined on the basis of type of vegetation and topography.

Plant Data Collection
The whole Shakarparian forest was surveyed and transects were laid after the intervals of two kilometers. Within every third kilometer four transects were laid at 0 th , 250 th , 500 th and 1000 m distance. Then the next site was selected at the 2 kilometer distance and so on.

Density
Density relates to the number of plants rooted within each quadrant. The sum of individuals per species will be calculated for the total area sampled by the quadrant method.

Importance value (IV)
Importance value (sum of relative density, relative frequency, and relative cover) was determined (Barbour et al., 1980). On the basis of importance value, sampled vegetation was delineated into different plant communities. The communities 24 within each stand were named as the species having highest Importance Value. When two or more species closely approach each other in order of importance value then the communities share the names of these dominants. The name of the species with highest Importance Value was appearing first followed by other dominant species. Once the plant communities / associations were delineated, the associated fauna, including different kinds of mammals, birds, reptiles, etc. were recorded by either observation or by listing all reported fauna found in the Shakarparian forest resort.

RESULTS
In the present study, almost the whole area of the Shakarparian was surveyed to study different environmental parameters, phytosociology, and faunal biodiversity of the region. Different strategies were adapted for different groups to study.

Environmental Parameters
To assess the deterioration in the air of Shakarparian and its comparison with the urban Islamabad was done through measuring different air quality parameters in two different localities. Air quality monitoring is the first measure in determining the level of air pollution in a forest resort (Shakarparian) and urban Islamabad.
A comparison was done and Table 1 was set to show a marked difference of quantity of air pollutants in both selected sites.

Animal Diversity
A total of 155 animal species have been observed in the current study area. Out of these species 23 species of Mammals, 104 of Birds, 22 of Reptiles and 6 species of Amphibians have been recorded.

Amphibians
The amphibian fauna of the Shakarparian belongs to only one single order that is "Anura", three species representing three different families. Table 2 clearly indicates the detailed account of all species present in the study area.

Reptiles
The reptile fauna of the Shakarparian is represented by the 22 species, belonging to 19 genera, 9 families and 2 orders. All the observed species have been systematically represented in Table 3.
The density of lizards in the study area has been given in the Table  4.

Plant Diversity
A vegetation analysis of the Shakarparian was carried out by selecting three different sampling sites in the area. These sites were selected in such a way that a Phytosociological study of the area could be carried out smoothly. 30 transects were laid, 10 in each sampling site and an average for each site was recorded. A total of 61 plant species were recorded. Most of the area sampled was found to be covered with the grass and shrubby vegetation with a considerable amount of tree cover.