Application of geoinformatics for conservation and management of rare and threatened plant species

Currently available floras, which provide valuable information about the species distribution pattern, do not indicate specific locations. The preservation of threatened plants has to be based upon site-specific geographical information, knowledge of their critical habitat and distribution pattern of each threatened species in a phytosociological layout. Precise point-location data on microclimate, topography, and soil in association with geographical distribution of threatened species in the phytosociological layout will lead to the exact locality information of the concerned taxa, their population status, edaphic and climatic characters of their habitat, their niche width, potential localities to be searched, knowledge of their habitat requirements, particularly the factors limiting their distributions, the factors leading to local and biological extinction and critical habitats. In the present study, habitats of Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary were analysed by stratified random sampling techniques and locations of rare and threatened species were gathered by GPS. Satellite remote sensing data with the aid of GIS were used for site-specific mapping of each threatened species, their realized niches and the status of niches with regard to degradation. The study resulted in documenting 151 tree species belonging to 51 families with six rare and eight threatened species. The distribution of each rare and threatened species, their realized niches and status, ecological amplitude among forest types and their geographical positions in the landscape were documented and mapped.