The plateau was discovered in Manjare village of Maharashtra’s Thane district and is the fourth type of plateau to be identified in the region.
A sunrise view of Western Ghats. (Photo: Getty)
By India Today Web Desk: Researchers have discovered a rare low-altitude basalt plateau in the Western Ghats that could offer new insights into surviving climate change. The plateau has a widespread flora with 76 species of plants and shrubs from 24 different families discovered so far.
Discovered in the Thane region of Maharashtra, it is one of the four global biodiversity hotspots in India and can prove to be a repository of information for species interactions. Researchers believe that the plateau can help study the effects of climate change on species survival.
The plateau was discovered in Manjare village of Maharashtra’s Thane district and is the fourth type of plateau to be identified in the region; the previous three are laterites at high and low altitudes and basalt at high altitudes.
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“It can help study the effects of climate change on species survival and increase awareness of the conservation needs of rock outcrops and their immense biodiversity value in the global context,” the Ministry of Science & Technology said in a statement. The region is being studied by Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) in Pune.
Researchers are studying the rock outcrops, the habitats possessing large areas of exposed bare rock and extreme environmental conditions. The plateaus are dominant landscapes in the Western Ghats, significant because of the predominance of endemic species.
They are classified as a type of rock outcrop, which provides a unique and challenging environment for species to adapt to. These outcrops have seasonal water availability, and limited soil, and nutrients, making them ideal laboratories to study the effects of climate change on species survival.
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Led by Dr. Mandar Datar, the team from ARI documented 76 species of plants and shrubs from 24 different families from the plateau that share the vegetation with the three other rock outcrops, simultaneously holding a few unique species. The details of the findings have been published in SpringerNature journal National Academy of Science Letters.
The study highlighted the importance of the newly discovered low-level basalt plateau located in Manjare Village in the North Western Ghats, standing 156 meters above mean sea level.
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