Abstract:

In the present scenario of global warming and its control, forests have attracted particular interest since they play an essential role in sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. The influence of forest cutting on soil properties were studied in temperate forest of Kashmir Himalaya. On the basis of the intensity of disturbance, two differently disturbed forest sites, High-Disturbed (HD) and Low-Disturbed (LD) sites were selected for sampling. To calculate the beta diversity between disturbed and undisturbed plots of the studied forest site beta part package, R version 3.5.1 was used. The results of the beta diversity showed significant difference in species composition (p = 0.009) between the sites. Highest Fisher’s alpha value and Margalefvalue (10.05; 5.61) was observed in LD sites and lowest value (8.38; 4.82) in HD sites, respectively. The results can help to stake holders to develop appropriate decisions for the management of these degraded forests sites for their sustainable development.