Changes in anatomical features along the altitudinal and rainfall gradients in pakistan

Abstract

Altitude causes changes in the environmental factors thus alter the anatomy of plants greatly. Anatomical modifications of plants under broad environmental changes concerning global climate changes along the altitudinal gradient are lacking. Therefore, the present investigation was conducted to find out the structural modifications of a wide range of species growing in contrasting habitat along the altitudinal and rainfall gradients in Pakistan. For such perspectives, perennial shrubs were collected along the altitudinal transect ranges 410-2941m (a.s.l). The transect was passed through five climatic forest types of Pakistan during 2018. The wood parameters were measured from the macerated wood materials included length of vessel element, vessel element diameter, fiber length, fiber diameter, fiber lumen diameter; wall thickness, slenderness ratio (SR), Runkel ratio (RR) and coefficient of suppleness (CS) . Analysis of variance and cluster analyses were used for data simplification. Alpine flora exhibited the shortest vessel and fibers while the longest vessels were recorded in montane Sub-tropical plateau forest. However, no changes were recorded in-wall diameter, Runkel ratio and coefficient of suppleness were observed with the changes in altitude and climatic factors.