Please check this PDF attachment.

Please check this PDF attachment.

Importance Value is a measure of how dominant a species is in a given community.  Three kinds of data are often used:

(1) Relative density, the number of individuals per area as a percent of the number of individuals of all species.

(2) Relative frequency, the percent of inventory points occupied by species A as a percent of the occurence of all species. 

(3) Relative basal area.  the total basal area of Species A as a percent of the total basal area of all species.  Basal area is the sum of the cross sectional area of all the species.

     Each of these values is expressed as a percent, and ranges from 0 to 100.

     The Shannon diversity index (H) is another index that is commonly used to characterize species diversity in a community. Like Simpson's index, Shannon's index accounts for both abundance and evenness of the species present.

The suggestions are appropriate, and if you have contacts with botanists, they may already have spreadsheets and plotting examples to share. In making the vegetation comparison, it may be appropriate to address the extent of soil, water and habitat changes when an area is used for borrow or mining materials.  The altered site may not be able to support some of the species found in the undisturbed or less disturbed area.  If the vegetation is coming back naturally, it may be an opportunity to study the rate and successional changes with time.  If plantings were used to speed recovery, they can still be part of the site response study.  Some quarry sites are so totally changed, recovery to a natural vegetation condition and species diversity in comparison to undisturbed areas is not a typical expectation .

Thank you very much for responding to my Question.  

these are my findings by comparison of both areas and with lade side of the Margallah Hill National Park. 

please leave your comments here. 

    Discussion

 Species Diversity in the Study Sites

Species diversity at both quarry sites was notice significant different with its adjacent undisturbed areas of Shahdra and Sha-Allah-dita. Number of plants colleted by sampling in Shahdra quarry was 21 and 40 in its adjacent area by quadrate sampling method which was different in herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees. Number of trees in quarry site was significantly low because of disturbance of land and soil chemical composition was diminishing the plant growth. On the other side, in Sha-Allah-dita quarry total 28 species was collected and 41 in its adjacent undisturbed peak which emphasis on plant diversity difference in both site.

Dominated species in quarry sites were mostly recorded herbaceous plants like; Parthenium hyserophorus followd by Cynodon dactylon, Taraxam officinale and Nassella tenuissima dominant and co-dominant herbaceous plants of the area. Comparatively in undisturbed area numbers of shrubs and trees were recorded as co-dominant species of the area which was totally lack in the quarry (disturbed) site. In Sha-Allah-dita quarry Parthenium hysterophorus and Cynodon dactylon were the dominant herbaceous plants and followed by other herbaceous plants mentioned in the table 4.7. Comparatively most of the plants dominant and co-dominant in undisturbed area of Sha-Allah-dita site were recorded as shrubs and trees which is totally lack in quarry sites. Different types of species recorded in adjacent sites of both sites of Shahdra and Sha-Allah-dita emphasis on diversity differences. Saidpur valley added to compare with both site because of natural rich vegetation of MHNP which shows the diversity differences with other study area. In Siadpur valley numbers of trees were recorded dominant plants of the area.  

1.4.2       Endemic Species 

Endemic species were found in undisturbed area but not in quarry sites, this trend shows that restoration of endemic species not successful yet in abandoned quarries.  

1.4.3       Invasive species of Quarry Sites and their Adjacent Undisturbed Areas

In the study area, the most dominant species in Shahdra quarry site was Parthenium hysterophorus ranging its IV value 27 as dominant specie in the area according to IUCN (1970, 2001) scale of species dominancy. In undisturbed area of Shahdra, Parthenium hysterophorus found as rare species with IV value 3. In Sha-Allah-dita quarry site, Parthenium hysterophorus and Cynodon dactylon was found as dominant species and Canabis stiva as co-dominant species with highest IV value of 32 and 23 respectively and its adjacent undisturbed area abundance of invasive species relatively as rare species. In Saidpur natural valley Parthenium hysterophorus was not found in different heights where data were collected during sampling. Parthenium hysterophorus has invasive nature and biological invasion by alien invasive species is now recognized as one of the major threats to native species and MHNP ecosystems. It produces severe, often irreversible impacts on natural vegetation, recreation and vegetation ecology Parthenium hysterophorus invasions are real threat to MHNP’s environment which causes effect to other plant diversity which occurs in undisturbed area. These non-native plants harm or endanger native plants and animals or other aspects of biodiversity. They have invaded almost every type of native ecosystem and caused hundreds of extinctions throughout the world, the same study added by Joshi (2000).

In MHNP, this weed is spreading aggressively in abandoned quarries of MHNP empty land, degraded areas, rocky crevices, and roadsides. It has recently also been reported in natural vegetation of the area reported by Shabbir (2002). This noxious weed can affect other biodiversity adjacent to it.

Parthenium hysterophorus transferring in empty areas of MHNP as in abandoned quarries by people movment in National Park for recreaction activities and because of its efficient biological activity and adaptability to varying soils structure of quarries and micro environments, parthenium weed has a tendency to replace the dominant flora in wide range along MHNP. Very little or sometimes no other vegetation can be seen in P. hysterophorus dominated areas. Wherever it invades, it forms a territory of its own by replacing the indigenous natural flora including medicinal herbs (Oudhia, 2000). Its allelopathic properties, which cause inhibition of germination and suppression of the natural vegetation including many medicinal herbs, pose a strong threat to biodiversity.

The second most abundant species in both quarry sites was Cynodon dactylon, this dominant weed species with the highest importance value 24 in Shahdra quarry and 29 in Sha-Allah-dita quarry (Cullen et al., 1998).

1.4.4        Difference in Plant Vegetation its Soil Composition

The highest coverage of woody species was found at older phases, while the lowest woody coverage occurred at younger phases. Soils were strongly to moderately contain organic matter, and more organic matter was found in the undisturbed than in the quarry sites. Woody coverage and native species richness were significantly compared in abundance in dominancy with carbon source utilization and functional diversity (Zhang and Chu, 2011). This research resulted that, vegetation succession is more limited by available soil volume than by soil fertility during the early stages of quarry restoration (Yuan et al., 2006).

The typical plant communities found over them were composed of gramineous herbs, ferns, and shrubs. Soil organic matter, soil moisture, and soil bulk density were considered to be the major determining factors for vegetation succession. There existed abiotic and biotic thresholds during quarrying restoration. Suggestions had been presented that could have accelerated the process of natural recovery in quarries as stated by Wenjun et al.,(2008). The results of this experiment indicate that the use of these mediterranean species, adapted to nutrient and water stress, can circumvent harsh conditions of the quarry as Clement et al., (2004) conclude in his study.

1.4.5        Substrate Parameters

Based on studies of soil properties, phosphorus present in quarry soils is lacking and fixation therefore becomes unavailable to plants for proper growth and development that is why plants were not rich in the quarry site. Shrubs and tree dominancy was totally lack in the area, comparatively on the other side in undisturbed and valley area number of plants were quiet higher and tree dominancy emphasis that soil structure is suitable for plant growth (Vitousek, 2004). Forest ecosystems are highly diversified in plant species and this great floristic diversity is supported by relatively poor and acidic soils (Uno et. al., 2001)

Saidpur valley was the most diverse of all sites having less basic soils that have low calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium concentrations. This result corroborates the findings of Fonge et al. 2011, who reported similar results in soils of the Mount Cameroon region.

 In both undisturbed areas adjacent to their quarries and saaidpur valley  had the highest values in terms of organic matter or organic carbon, available phosphorus and slight difference in CEC, and this explains its high floristic diversity by resulting high numbers of plants in the area comparatively to quarry area. The high content of these elements could be because of the continuous accumulation of organic material on the top soil over decades from different species (bryophytes, ferns, orchids, etc.), litter from trees, shrubs, and dead macro- and microorganisms which could be responsible for the regeneration of the vegetation cover (Wada et al., 1989; Fonge et al., 2011)

But in quarry sites disturbance of top layers and crushing removes all deposit of soil component removed which had negative impact on the vegetation of the area to grow big trees rather than some herbs which can enhance the growth in many decades after stabilizing the area’s soil components. Saidpur valley had the highest percentages of organic matter, and this might be the reason why they had a greater diversity compared with the other sites.

Organic matter of soil is the basic component for plant growth and the trend in different sites shows in the results little diversity in quarry and undisturbed area. That’s make difference in vegetation growth of plants. As results shows dominancy of herbs in quarry area was pretty impressive and no medium sized tree was recorded in the quarry area because of lacking soil components in the area. Comparatively, in undisturbed area adjacent to quarry sites organic matter component is crossing the normal range for require growth of plants. This difference was more apparent in the line graph to grow diverse vegetation and number of dominancy of plant type shows by their IV values.

The nutrient saturation percentage in quarry sites were relatively low as comparing to the number of vegetation of undisturbed area and valley which is another emphasis on plant diversity and dominancy of bigger trees and shrubs rather than herbs. Texture of the soil in all sites was relatively good for growth of vegetation which is determined by soil texture analysis of USDA.