DOI: 10.5061/dryad.pzgmsbcg5
title: Data from: Quantification and characterization of vegetation and functional trait diversity of riparian zones of the protected forest of Kashmir Himalaya, India

description: Globally, riparian zones are widely recognized for their vital role in
 water regulation and conservation of biodiversity. The plant vegetation
 seen along the river banks is generally referred as the riparian
 vegetation. The present study has specifically investigated the floristic
 and functional diversity of vegetation in the riparian zones of protected
 forests of Kashmir Himalaya. Random sampling method was used for site
 selection while Transect method was used for data collection. Data
 obtained from field was subjected to taxonomic and functional
 classification. Floristic, analysis reveals a total of 78 species
 belonging to 68 genera in 40 families having an unequal distribution of
 species among families. Nine families contributed half of the species in
 which, Rosaceae is the dominant family with 9 (12%) species followed by
 Asteraceae with 8 species (10%) while 23 families are monotypic. In terms
 of functional trait diversity, herbaceous and perennial forms were
 dominant over the other life forms. The biological spectrum revealed the
 dominance of a therophyte life form, indicating disturbed vegetation.
 Phenological spectrum revealed that maximum flowering periods starts from
 March to May in which a total of (61%) species were observed. The leading
 leaf size spectra were mesophyll with 35%, followed by microphyll (31%).
 Maximum (64%) of the species had simple leaf lamina type. The results of
 the present study serve as a means to evaluate best management practices,
 assess restoration and mitigation projects, prioritize riparian related
 resource management decisions, and establish aquatic life use standards.
description: First of all, field surveys in years 2017 to 2018 about the
 nature of terrain, tree species composition, distribution and
 accessibility of different forest types. The forest
 working plans of the Dachigam National park was used for geographical
 location, administrative jurisdiction and forest vegetation
 types. Random sampling technique and transect method
 for species collection  was used. The specimen was identified using
 relevant taxonomic literature (Stewart, 1972; EFLORAS). The plant
 specimens were dried, preserved, labeled and mounted on herbarium sheets
 following standard herbarium techniques (Bridson and Forman, 1999). Plant
 specimens were submitted to Herbarium Department of Botany, University of
 Kashmir, Srinagar. The specialized taxonomic database of The Plant List
 (www.theplantlist.org) was used for the updated nomenclature of taxa. Detailed field observations on ecological traits such as (flowering, fruiting, habit, Raunkiaer’s life form and leaf size spectra) for each species were recorded as per (Raunkiaer, 1934; Mclaren, and Mcdonald, 2005; Pérez-Harguindeguy et al., 2013; Haq et al., 2018). Statistically the vegetation data was analyzed to find out the relationship between ecological variables and plant composition. The presence/absence data was subjected to classification phenological similarities and differences among the different flowering season using PAST software. Cluster Analysis (CA) identified significant different flowering season based on Sorensen’s (Bray-Curtis) distance with the formula QS = 2C/A + B, where A and B are the number of species in sites A and B, and C is the number of species shared by the two stations (Sorensen, 1948; Dalirsefat et al., 2009).