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#ecological regions

2 public questions tagged with this topic.

Natural History of Indian subcontinent

How many biogeographic zones of India are recognized by Wildlife Institute of India (WII)?

Biogeographic classification of India was developed by Rodgers and Panwar of Wildlife Institute of India in 1986-88 while planning Protected Area network gap analysis. India subdivided into ten biogeographic zones representing major ecological patterns: Trans-Himalaya, Himalaya, Desert, Semi-arid, Western Ghats, Deccan Peninsula, Gangetic Plains, North East, Coastal, Islands. Further divided into 27 biotic provinces based on climate, flora, fauna. This framework guides tiger census strata, ecosystem management, Environmental Impact Assessment, and ensures representative coverage of biodiversity. This pattern is frequently tested in NCERT-based competitive examinations requiring precise recall of taxonomic hierarchy principles.

Ref: WII Biogeographic Zones Rodgers & Panwar 1988 10 zones; MoEFCC Biogeography Classification of India

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BIODIVERSITY

Which region shows maximum α and β diversity respectively?

Alpha diversity describes richness and abundance within a single local community, whereas beta diversity describes compositional change among communities. Thus, identifying the region labelled Q as having maximum alpha diversity requires Q to contain the richest local assemblage, or the assemblage with the greatest combined richness and evenness if an index is supplied. Identifying S as having maximum beta diversity requires the greatest species turnover among its sampled sites: sites in S should share relatively few species and differ strongly in composition. Beta diversity is not simply the total number of species in a region; a region may have high gamma diversity but modest beta diversity if every site contains nearly the same species. Conversely, environmentally heterogeneous regions can have high beta diversity because different habitats filter different species. The pairing Q and S therefore expresses two distinct spatial properties—high diversity within a site and high differentiation between sites. The underlying diagram or species table is needed to recompute these rankings, but the conceptual basis for the keyed pairing is local diversity in Q and maximum turnover in S.

Ref: NCERT Biology Class 12, Ch. 15 Biodiversity and Conservation

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