Diversity of Medicinal Plants among Different Forest-use Types of the Pakistani Himalaya Medicinal plants collected in Himalayan forests play a vital role in the livelihoods of regional rural societies and are also increasingly recognized at the international level. However, these forests are being heavily transformed by logging. Here we ask how forest transformation influences the diversity and composition of medicinal plants in northwestern Pakistan, where we studied old-growth forests, forests degraded by logging, and regrowth forests. First, an approximate map indicating these forest types was established and then 15 study plots per forest type were randomly selected. We found a total of 59 medicinal plant species consisting of herbs and ferns, most of which occurred in the old-growth forest. Species number was lowest in forest degraded by logging and intermediate in regrowth forest. The most valuable economic species, including six Himalayan endemics, occurred almost exclusively in old-growth forest. Species composition and abundance of forest degraded by logging differed markedly from that of old-growth forest, while regrowth forest was more similar to old-growth forest. The density of medicinal plants positively correlated with tree canopy cover in old-growth forest and negatively in degraded forest, which indicates that species adapted to open conditions dominate in logged forest. Thus, old-growth forests are important as refuge for vulnerable endemics. Forest degraded by logging has the lowest diversity of relatively common medicinal plants. Forest regrowth may foster the reappearance of certain medicinal species valuable to local livelihoods and as such promote acceptance of forest expansion and medicinal plants conservation in the region. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12231-012-9213-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

中文翻译：

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巴基斯坦喜马拉雅山不同森林利用类型的药用植物多样性。

巴基斯坦喜马拉雅山不同森林利用类型中药用植物的多样性 在喜马拉雅山森林中采集的药用植物在区域农村社会的生计中发挥着至关重要的作用，并且在国际层面也越来越得到认可。然而，这些森林正在因伐木而发生严重变化。在这里，我们询问森林改造如何影响巴基斯坦西北部药用植物的多样性和组成，我们在那里研究了古老的森林、因砍伐而退化的森林和再生森林。首先，建立指示这些森林类型的近似地图，然后随机选择每种森林类型的 15 个研究地块。我们共发现了 59 种药用植物，包括草本植物和蕨类植物，其中大部分生长在原始森林中。砍伐退化林的物种数量最低，再生林的物种数量居中。最有价值的经济物种，包括六种喜马拉雅特有物种，几乎只出现在原始森林中。采伐退化林的物种组成和丰度与老生林明显不同，而再生林与老生林更相似。老林中药用植物密度与树冠盖度呈正相关，退化林中呈负相关，表明适应开放条件的物种在采伐林中占主导地位。因此，古老的森林作为脆弱的地方病的避难所很重要。因砍伐而退化的森林在相对常见的药用植物中的多样性最低。森林再生可能会促进某些对当地生计有价值的药用物种的重新出现，从而促进该地区对森林扩张和药用植物保护的接受。电子补充材料：本文的在线版本（doi：10.1007/s12231-012-9213-4）包含补充材料，可供授权用户使用。