The Western Himalayan broadleaf forests is a

temperate broadleaf and mixed forest Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. Thes ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

which is found in the middle elevations of the western

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

, including parts of

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, and

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Setting

The ecoregion forms an area of temperate broadleaf forest covering in a narrow band between elevation, extending from the Gandaki River gorge in Nepal, through

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

and Jammu and Kashmir in northern India into parts of northern Pakistan. This ecoregion is drier and the forest is more fragmented than its Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests counterpart, which receive more moisture from the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

monsoon but is still valuable habitat especially as part of the pattern of habitats found at different elevations on the Himalayan mountainsides. Many species of birds and animals migrate up and down the mountains seasonally from the grasslands of the plains below to the high peaks. At lower elevations, this ecoregion grades into Himalayan subtropical pine forests. At higher elevations, it grades into Western Himalayan subalpine conifer forests as well as Northwestern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows and Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows.

Flora

The Western Himalayan broadleaf forests may be divided into forests of two types: evergreen and deciduous broadleaved forests. In both types of forests, the dominated trees are ''

Pinus roxburghii ''Pinus roxburghii'', commonly known as chir pine or longleaf Indian pine, is a species of pine tree Native plant, native to the Himalayas. It was named after William Roxburgh. Description ''Pinus roxburghii'' is a large tree reaching with a ...

'', '' Pinus hwangshanensis'', '' Juniperus tibetica'', ''

Shorea robusta ''Shorea robusta'', the sal tree, sāla, shala, sakhua, or sarai, is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The tree is native to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet and across the Himalayan regions. Evolution Fossil evidence from lig ...

'', '' Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata'', and '' Taxus sumatrana'' The evergreen broadleaf forest is dominated by

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

s, consisting of '' Quercus semecarpifolia, Quercus leucotrichophora, Quercus floribunda, Quercus lanata,

Quercus glauca ''Quercus glauca'' ( syn. ''Cyclobalanopsis glauca''), commonly called ring-cupped oak or Japanese blue oak, is a tree in the beech family (Fagaceae). It is native to eastern and southern Asia, where it is found in Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, nor ...

and Quercus baloot.'' This forest is typically found on moister southern slopes, which are more influenced by the

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

. Various

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant Family (biology), family that includes the bay laurel, true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genus (biology), genera worldwide. They are dicotyled ...

call this forest home, including ''

Machilus odoratissimus ''Machilus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lauraceae. It is found in temperate, subtropical, and tropical forest, occurring in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Indochina, the Indian subcontinent, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Phili ...

, Litsea umbrosa, Litsea lanuginosa'', and '' Phoebe pulcherrima''. The understory features a rich assemblage of ferns, mosses, and

epiphyte An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

s. On northern slopes, drier areas, and higher elevations, conifers like ''

Abies Firs are evergreen coniferous trees belonging to the genus ''Abies'' () in the family Pinaceae. There are approximately 48–65 extant species, found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Eurasia, and North Africa. The genu ...

Picea A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' is the sole genus ...

Cedrus ''Cedrus'', with the common English name cedar, is a genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae (subfamily Abietoideae). They are native to the mountains of the western Himalayas and the Mediterranean region, occurring at altitud ...

'', and ''

Pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as c ...

'' thrives''.'' The wild olive, '' olea cuspidata'' is found here too. The deciduous forest is found along rivers west of the Gandaki River. It includes '' Aesculus indica'', '' Juglans regia, Carpinus viminea'', '' Alnus nepalensis'', and several '' Acer'' species like Acer caesium, Acer acuminatum, Acer cappadocicum, Acer lobelia subsp. pictum, Acer oblongum, etc are found. In drier areas such as the valley of the upper Ghaghara River it includes '' Populus ciliata'', '' Ulmus wallichiana'', and '' Corylus colurna'' as well and the riverbanks are dominated by Himalayan alder ('' Alnus nitida'').

Fauna

Although there is less wildlife here than in the wetter Eastern Himalayas, this ecoregion is home to seventy-six species of mammals. These include the Asiatic black bear,

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...

, the

Himalayan tahr The Himalayan tahr (''Hemitragus jemlahicus'') is a large even-toed ungulate native to the Himalayas in southern Tibet, northern India, western Bhutan and Nepal. It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, as the population is declini ...

, and the threatened

Himalayan serow The Himalayan serow (''Capricornis sumatraensis thar''), also known as the thar ( , ), is a subspecies of the mainland serow native to the Himalayas. It was previously considered its own species, as ''Capricornis thar''. It is the official stat ...

(Capricornis thar). There is one endemic mammal, the Kashmir cave bat (''Myotis longipes'') while the threatened Peter's tube-nosed bat (''Murina grisea'') is near-endemic. About 315 species of birds have been recorded in this ecoregion from tiny warblers to large pheasants such as the western tragopan (''Tragopan melanocephalus''), satyr tragopan (''Tragopan satyra''), koklass pheasant (''Pucrasia macrolopha''), Himalayan monal (''Lophophorus impejanus'') and cheer pheasant (''Catreus wallichi''). Near-endemic birds of the forests include the white-cheeked tit, white-throated tit, spectacled finch, Kashmir flycatcher, Tytler's leaf-warbler, orange bullfinch, and Kashmir nuthatch, while the Himalayan quail which used to be found here is now thought to be extinct.

Threats and conservation

The Himalayas receive large numbers of visitors every year including religious pilgrims and trekkers. Although there a large number of protected areas each of them are quite small and most of original forest has been cleared for

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksAskot Musk Deer Sanctuary, and parts of the Govind Pashu Vihar Wildlife Sanctuary, Rupi Bhabha Sanctuary and the large Kishtwar National Park.

References

External links

WWF: ''Map of ecoregions in Nepal and China'', showing the Western Himalaya Temperate Forests Ecoregion
{{Uttarakhand Ecoregions of the Himalayas Himalayan forests Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Ecoregions of India Ecoregions of Nepal Ecoregions of Pakistan * Forests of India Forests of Pakistan Biota of India Biota of Nepal Ecoregions of Asia Indomalayan ecoregions Forests of Nepal