Weed Community Composition, Structure and their Quantitative Evaluation under Tropical Conditions in Garhwal Region
Tana Dipung1, Himshikha Gusain1*, Jitendra Singh Butola1 and Sneha Dobhal2
Published: July 02, 2022
Abstract
An inclusive knowledge of weed biology is essential for identification and management in order to develop both economically and environmentally acceptable weed management systems. A comprehensive documentation of weed communities is essentially required for inventorization, taxonomic identification and effective management. Present experiment was conducted on composition and their vegetation analysis of weed species through collection of specimens from destructive sample plots in HNB Garhwal University, Chaurus Campus, Uttarakhand. A total of 26 weed species belonging to 24 genera and 18 families were recorded from the 13 plots. Total Number of Individuals (TNI) was observed highest in Murraya koenigii (221±7.10) and least for Ziziphus Mauritiana (13±0.48). Important Value Index (IVI) was highest for Murraya koenigii (137.44) and Cannabis sativa (66.73), while the lowest was recorded for Ziziphus mauritiana (22.33) and Cissampelo spereira (2.41). Oxalis corniculata (69.23) showed the highest frequency, while Cannabis sativa showed both density=13.09 and abundance=21.27 to be the highest. Both Cissampelo spereira and Solanum nigrum species recorded lowest frequency, density and abundance was with value F=7.69 each. On basis of IVI, Murrayakoinigii and Cannabis sativa species marked the highest level of domination in the observation plots. The Asteraceae (4) followed by Amaranthaceae (3) and Malvaceae (3) were observed to be dominant family at the sites. The family such as Apocynaceae, Canabaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Boraginaceae showed least number of species. The range of abundance-frequency ratio was between 0.02 – 0.35, which indicate regular and random distribution pattern, signifying a suitable management system for weed regime in the area.