Abstract
The Western Ghats are full of high altitude plateaus/rock outcrops amidst mesic forests. Throughout the world, rock outcrops are isolated habitats and known for their uniqueness with respect to environmental variables and biodiversity and well known as centers of species endemism. In India such special habitats are geographically known but very less information is available about their floristic wealth. Available studies are occasional and limited to ecology. Due to a lack of appropriate information and errors in the study models of random sampling, important habitats may get misinterpreted and pose a threat to conservation. A comprehensive botanical study of two rock outcrops, Durgawadi Plateau (DP) and Naneghat Plateau (NP), on the escarpment of the northern Western Ghats revealed a very high within-site (360 taxa on DP and 249 taxa on NP) and between-site plant diversity totaling to 443 taxa of specific and infraspecific ranks. The individual outcrop areas are very small (2.8793km2 and 0.7524km2 respectively for DP and NP) but harbor a huge diversity of flowering plants. The commonly shared taxa are relatively low (37% of the taxa recorded) indicating that the two outcrops are floristically very distinct from each other. They are also distinct in terms of soil composition, though on the same crest line of Sahyadri and quite close to each other. The study emphasizes the need for micro-level inventories of smaller areas by taking intensive surveys for documentation of different aspects of the abiotic and biotic diversity as well as other environmental and anthropogenic variables.
Highlights
Rock outcrops are well known throughout the world but less studied
The rock outcrops in the Western Ghats are of two types based on the rock formation and soil type developed from it: (i) Lateritic—lateritic rock cover is well preserved over the parent basalt rock and soil rich in iron e.g., Kas Plateau and other low altitude plateaus in the Konkan region and (ii) Basaltic—having black hard rock and soil, e.g., plateaus with forts, such as Naneghat Plateau
The study area comprised two rock outcrop areas on the high hill escarpment of Western Ghats and an aerial distance between them ranging from 5–10.5 km
Summary
Rock outcrops are well known throughout the world but less studied. Most of the studies are from African, American and Australian outcrops (Porembski et al 1994, 2000; Burke 2005 a,b; Jacobi et al 2007) describing the habitat types and associated vegetation composition. High altitude rock outcrops are found throughout the Western Ghats in India. Some plateaus in the northwestern corner of Pune District are entirely basaltic but have some lateritic soil due to weathering. Such rock outcrops have a distinct geographical feature, of a little porous rock and yellowish-gravelly soil. They have a diversity of micro-habitats and are rich in flora and fauna. Transect studies of plateaus in the northern Western Ghats and Konkan region by Watve (2008, 2013) are confined to the vegetation composition and pattern of only some microhabitats on plateaus. Complete diversity on the plateaus in the northern Western Ghats is not yet revealed satisfactorily
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