Species abundance along the railway of Kashmir Himalaya

1. The significant portion of global terrestrial biodiversity harbored in mountains is under increasing threat from a variety of anthropogenic impacts. Protecting fragile mountain ecosystems requires understanding how these human disturbances affect biodiversity. As roads and railways are extended further into mountain ecosystems, understanding the long-term impacts of this infrastructure on community composition and diversity gains urgency.

2. We used railway corridors constructed across the mountainous landscapes of the Kashmir Himalaya from 1994-2013 to study the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on species’ distributions and community dynamics. In 2014 and 2017, we collected vegetation data along 31 T-shaped transects laid perpendicular to the railway line, adopting the MIREN (Mountain Invasion Research Network) road survey methodology. 

3. Plant communities shifted significantly from 2014 to 2017, potentially as a result of ongoing species’ redistribution after railway con...