Bamboo Diversity Assessment and its Relationship with Soil Properties in Sarpang, Bhutan

Abstract

The bamboo diversity study was conducted in three gewogs of Sarpang Dzongkhag. Diversity was studied, both in the forests and in the villages, using nets covering the gewogs. A total of 15 bamboo species from four genera were recorded. Bambusa was the most dominant genus in the study area. Species diversity, uniformity, and richness showed medium diversity (H = 2.239), high uniformity (J = .827), and high richness (D = 2.682) in the study area. Biodiversity and uniformity across land use types showed forest areas with the highest diversity (H = 2.91) and uniformity (J = .96), followed by agricultural land (H = 2.65; J = .88) and built-up area (H=2.20; J=0.86). Soil analysis showed that bamboo can grow in soils with organic carbon ranging from 0% ( zero is not possible..)to 4.98%, with a mean of 1.87%. Similarly, soil moisture also ranged from 0.20 to 24.07% with a mean of 7.17% and organic matter from 0 ( ..not possible..?)to 2.90% with a mean organic matter of 1.28%. Soil pH ranged from 4.10 to 5.10 with a mean pH of 4.68, indicating that bamboo requires slightly acidic soil to grow. The Kruskal-Walli’s test found that there was a significant difference (p

<0.05) in bamboo diversity and soil properties across different land use types. Woodland had the highest culm count. Spearman’s correlation showed a low to moderate correlation between bamboo diversity and different soil properties. Conic correlation analysis showed a correlation of bamboo species with soil properties that varied from species to species. The suitable habitat of bamboo covers about 40.92% of the total area. This study provides baseline data for future research and management purposes of bamboo in the country