Ecorestoration of Banni Grassland - Global Restoration Network

4. METHODOLOGY
The vegetation data was collected from two
restoration sites; Bhirandiyara and Dhordo and it’s
adjoining areas located outside the restoration
sites. Further, to understand the effects of Prosopis
juliflora on grass plant diversity and productivity,
data was collected from such infested areas also.
Even though several management inputs such as
protection, reseeding, fertiliser application and soil
amendments were carried out to hasten the recovery
process of the restoration sites, all these
efforts would not be successful with out
appropriate rainfall. Therefore, the severe
droughts, which prevailed during the year
1995 and 1996, created a serious hurdle on
the recovery of restoration sites. During this
period, the total rainfall recorded in Bhuj
taluka was 152 and 87 mm respectively and
this rainfall was 56 and 75 per cent less than
the normal rainfall recorded (328 mm) for the
taluka. Therefore, the efforts of the
restoration activities at the two sites could
be seen only after the 1997 monsoon i.e.
from September 1997 to December 1997 (see
limitation of data).
4.1 Field Data Collection Method
Quadrate method was used to collect the data on
vegetation (species diversity and biomass) in the
restoration and adjoining sites of Bhirandiyara and
Dhordo. The size of the sampling quadrate was fixed
to 0.5 x 0.5 m (square) based on the nested plot
method (Figure 3).
The nature of plants causes a clear and a slowchanging
spatial pattern in the distribution of species.
Often patchiness in the environmental variables,
restrict the dispersal of propagules and clonal
growth, bring about a patchy distribution of plants
of a species. The increase in the sampling number
or replication of sampling than the minimum required
number allows the precision of the generalisation
to the whole study area to be measured. Therefore,
a sampling strategy was designed to compensate
for this patchiness and to give an accurate repre-
Ecorestoration of
Banni Grassland
sentation of the species in the whole study area. In
total 35 sampling sites, covering an area of 25 x 25
m were fixed within the Dhordo restoration plot. In
all the 35 sampling sites, three sampling quadrates
(0.25 m 2 ) were laid starting from September 1997,
and thereafter, every fortnightly for the rest of the
study period. The data collection ended during late
November 1997 at Dhordo (due to harvest of grass)
and in December 1997 at Bhirandiyara site. During
the study period, a total of 428 sampling were carried
out at Dhordo restoration site, which includes
258 samples in the unploughed area and 170 in the
ploughed area of the restoration site. In the degraded
and Prosopis juliflora infested areas of
Dhordo, 48 samples were carried out at each site.
At Bhirandiyara, 4 sampling sites covering an area
of 25 x 25 m (625 m 2 ) was fixed in unploughed and
ploughed area where two samples at each sampling
sites were carried out at fortnightly intervals. In the
three slope areas, i.e. broad, vertical and horizontal,
8 samplings were carried out in each slope category.
Thus, during the study period, a total of 200
samples which encompasses 40 samples in each
amendment were carried out within the restoration
site and 36 in the unprotected area in the nearby
vicinity of Bhirandiyara restoration site.
In each sampling quadrate, data on plant species,
its cover, frequency and biomass were recorded.
Braun-Blanquet scale was used to estimate the
cover of the grass species. The sampling area was
divided into 5 cover classes;