Identifying ecological zones and evaluating plant diversity in the Northwestern Himalayas region

Sohail Abbas^1*Amina Ameer¹Heli Lu^1*Siqi Lu^2*Liang Cao¹Zongran Han¹Changhong Miao¹Wanfu Feng³Hummera Nawaz⁴Sana Fatima⁴

• ¹Henan University College of Geography and Environmental Science, Kaifeng, China
• ²University of Connecticut, Storrs, United States
• ³Xinyang University, Xinyang, China
• ⁴University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan

Intensified urbanization places serious pressure on regional ecosystems, emphasizing the imperative for an ecological zoning system to implement protective measures and enhance land-use planning under climate change. However, this study aims to accurately classify ecological zones and evaluate the plant diversity patterns in the northwestern Himalayas. Different types of datasets (climate, ecological, DEM, field survey, and Land use) were used during 1987-2024. The Random Forest and Support Vector Machines were used for categorizing and evaluating the ecological zones using the multispectral satellite datasets. These methods provide high-dimensional feature spaces for three classified ecological zones. The results revealed that the Lower Zone (656–1650 m), dominated by Dry Acacia Olea and Moist Chir Pine-Olea vegetation; the Middle Zone (1650–2250 m), characterized by Moist Blue Pine-Olea forests and shrub grasslands; and the Upper Zone (2250–5200 m), featuring mixed coniferous forests, alpine pastures, and diverse medicinal herbs. The findings showed that the Lower Zone (656– 1650 m) showed Chir pine's moderate timber potential and broad-leaved trees' high forage value, while the Middle Zone (1650–2250 m) hosted blue pine forests in humid, shallow soils. The Upper Zone (2250–5200 m) revealed exceptional biodiversity, including 20 new alpine species, with peak diversity at 3300–4500 m. The Lower Zone utilized steep slopes (>50%) for protected pine plantations and gentler slopes for silvopasture (Robinia/Ailanthus), while the Middle Zone maintained 20-25% blue pine forests amid shrub grasslands. In contrast, the Upper Zone exhibited greater biodiversity with 28.9% perennials and 51% biennials, including conifers (spruce/Cedrus) and broad-leaved species (walnut/Aesculus). The post-earthquake stability indices increased by 10.78% (2010), 11.72% (2017), and 7.76% (2023), indicating ecological resilience. These findings provide policymakers with a strategy to mitigate biodiversity loss by leveraging the observed resilience of Kaghan Valley's ecosystems.