scholarly journals Ecological analysis of abandoned forest plantations of Kannavam in Kerala, India

Author(s):  
ES Abhilash ◽  
ARR Menon ◽  
N Sasidharan ◽  
P Sujanapal ◽  
VB Sreekumar ◽  
...  

Phytosociological studies revealed Tectona grandis alone constitutes 66% of total tree volume, largest density (189.78), Most Frequently distributed, Higher I.V.I (110.59) followed by Aporusa lindleyana , I.V.I (34.26) , density (91.83) etc. As in the case of regenerants dominant saplings are Olea dioica (IVI= 81.66), Ixora brachiata (IVI= 73.06.) etc., emerged as well as established Seedlings include Ixora brachiata (IVI= 102.1), Aporusa lindleyana (IVI= 27.62). The average Shannon’s diversity value for Moist deciduous forests in India is 2.18 and here, in Kannavam forest plantations it becomes 2.13, which is very similar to typical moist deciduous forest. The presence of high endemism and considerable number of Rare, Endangered and Threatened plants shows its conservational importance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/apjeesd.v1i1.9506Asia Pacific Journal of Environment Ecology and Sustainable Development 2013; 1: 22-25

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (10) ◽  
pp. 1109-1118
Author(s):  
Reginaldo Antonio Medeiros ◽  
Haroldo Nogueira de Paiva ◽  
Flávio Siqueira D’Ávila ◽  
Helio Garcia Leite

Abstract: The objective of this work was to evaluate the growth and yield of teak (Tectona grandis) stands at different spacing and in different soil classes. Twelve spacing were evaluated in an Inceptisol and Oxisol, in plots with an area of 1,505 or 1,548 m2, arranged in a completely randomized design with nine replicates. The teak trees were measured at 26, 42, 50, and 78 months of age. Total tree height was less affected by spacing. Mean square diameter was greater in wider spacing, whereas basal area and total volume with bark were greater in closer spacing. An increase in volume with bark per tree was observed with the increase of useful area per plant. For teak trees, growth stagnation happens earlier, the growth rate is higher in closer spacing, and the plants grow more in the Inceptisol than in the Oxisol.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Razia Sultana ◽  
ASM Saifullah ◽  
Rahat Khan Khan ◽  
Mir Talas Mahammad Diganta

Abstract The litters in the forest floor are the principal contributor for regulating the cycling of necessary elements, primary productivity and maintain soil fertility within the forest ecosystems. Therefore, this study was conducted in a deciduous forest of Bangladesh to ascertain the leaf-litter production and decomposition along with elemental dynamics (K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Co and Zn). Leaf-litter samples from five deciduous plant species and soil samples were collected from the Madhupur Sal Forest for about six months (July-December) in 2018. Production of leaf-litter during the dry season (December) was found in an order of Shorea robusta>Dipterocarpus indicus>Terminalia bellirica>Tectona grandis>Grewia microcos. The decomposition rates were higher for the long sampling period (90 days) followed by the intermediate (60 days)> short(30 days) sampling period. The nutrient release pattern from the leaf-litter was similar (Ca>K>Mn>Fe>Zn>Co) for all plant species except for Terminalia bellirica and Tectona grandis. The Pearson correlation coefficients showed a significant relationship between K and Fe (r=0.54; p<0.05), Ca and Co (r=0.59; p<0.01), Fe and Co (r=0.97; p<0.05) in leaf-litters. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant variation in the litter production, decomposition and nutrient content (except Zn; p>0.05) among the different plant species (p<0.05). There revealed a significant dynamic of necessary elements from soil to trees and vice-versa.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
László Erdős ◽  
Katalin Szitár ◽  
Kinga Öllerer ◽  
Gábor Ónodi ◽  
Miklós Kertész ◽  
...  

AbstractTemperate deciduous forests dominated by oaks cover extensive areas in European lowlands. These ecosystems have been under intense anthropogenic use for millennia, thus their natural dynamics, and their regeneration in particular, is still not well understood. Previous studies found that pedunculate oak (Quercus robur), one of the most widespread and abundant species in European deciduous forests, regenerates in open habitats and forest edges, but not in closed forest interiors. However, these observations usually come from the core areas of the biome, and much less is known about such processes at its arid boundary, where limiting factors may be different, and climate change may first exert its effects.In a full factorial field experiment, we tested the effects of different habitats and increased growing season precipitation on the early regeneration of pedunculate oak in a forest-steppe ecosystem in Central Hungary, at the arid boundary of temperate deciduous forests. We planted acorns into three neighbouring habitats (grassland, forest edge, forest interior) and studied seedling emergence and plant performance under ambient weather and additional watering for four years.In the grassland habitat, seedling emergence was very low, and no seedlings survived by the fourth year. In contrast, seedling emergence was high and similar at forest edges and forest interiors, and was not affected by water addition. Most seedlings survived until the fourth year, with no difference between forest edge and forest interior habitats in numbers, and only minor or transient differences in size (leaf number, height).The lack of oak regeneration in the grassland contradicts previous reports on successful oak regeneration in open habitats, and may be related to a shift from light limitation to other limiting factors, such as moisture or microclimatic extremes, when moving away from the core of the deciduous forest biome towards its arid boundary. The similar number and performance of seedlings in forest edges and forest interiors may also be related to the decreasing importance of light limitation. The above-average precipitation in the year of seedling emergence (2016) might be a reason why watering had no effect on oak regeneration.Overall, our results highlight that oak regeneration and thus forest dynamics may be limited by different factors at a biome boundary compared to its core areas. Indeed, this very simple mechanism (inability of oak regeneration in grassland habitats) may contribute to the opening up of the closed forest biome, and the emergence of a biome transition zone.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Talat Parveen ◽  
Orus Ilyas

Abstract The disturbance is a major factor driving the decline of tropical forests and their associated fauna. Henceforth, basic information on species diversity would be useful for assessing the success of management in the fragmented and human-disturbed landscape. We accounted for tree species diversity and their regeneration pattern from the tropical dry deciduous forest of Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR), India. Considering this, random vegetation sampling along with transects was carried out in different ranges of PTR. It is spread over in an area of 2998.98 km2 that situated in the northern part of Madhya Pradesh and distributed in Panna and Chhatarpur district. The tropical dry deciduous forest inventory in the 10.6132-ha area yielded a total of 46 woody species of > 10 cm GBH, belonged to 23 Families and 40 genera. The regeneration represented 27 species of < 30 cm height (seedling) under 16 families and 24 genera while sapling, which ranges from > 30cm to 1.3m, showed 24 species of 13 families and 32 genera. The Shannon diversity of Trees, seedlings, and saplings was 2.684, 2.525, and 2.401 respectively. A total stand density and basal area of 2391 stems of trees were estimated as 225.285 stand ha− 1 and 90.016 m2ha− 1 respectively. Tectona grandis scored the highest IVI value of 59.44 (19.81% of total IVI for all species) among the dominated tree species, followed by Acacia catechu (24.94), Abrus precatorius (23.25), Zizyphus xylopyra (22.94), Anogeissus latifolia (22.16) and Lagerstroemia parviflora (22.18). Nearly 23.913% of the total number of species was recorded as rare species. The highest seedling density was obtained for Diospyros melanoxylon followed by Zizyphus xylopyra, Aegle marmelos, Wrightia tintoria, and Tectona grandis, which declined in the subsequent sapling stage and showed a reverse pattern. Hence, the highest sapling density was recorded for Tectona grandis then Aegle marmelos, Wrightia tintoria, Diospyros melanoxylon, and Zizyphus xylopyra. A total of 36.956% of tree species were found to fail to establish in the community because species were represented by only adult or tree stage that listed as Not-regenerating. In terms of the most diverse family among the plant categories; viz. Tree, Seedling, Sapling, Fabaceae had the highest species richness. The highest tree stand density (127.576 stand ha− 1) was recorded in the girth class of 31-60cm (48.687% of the total tree stand density) followed by 10-30cm and 61-90cm. Likewise, a total basal area of 20.824 m2ha− 1 was occupied by 31-60cm that contributed 23.051% of the total basal area, so our data on the population structure of forest shows a similar trend wherein the distribution curve exponentially decreases with increasing girth classes that indicates not only a mid-successional forest but also a human-disturbed.


Ecology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank S. Gilliam

Given the global distribution of human populations and their coincidence with temperate deciduous forests, it is likely that when most people consider the term “forest,” what comes to mind most frequently is the temperate deciduous forest biome. Although not to the level of their tropical counterparts, temperate deciduous forests typically display high plant biodiversity and rates of net primary productivity. They contrast sharply, however, with tropical forests in the distribution of biodiversity and productivity. In tropical forests, greatest plant diversity is associated with the vegetation of greatest productivity—trees. By contrast, the greatest plant diversity—up to 90 percent—in temperate deciduous forests occurs among the plants of least physical stature: the herbaceous species. Given the close association between these forests and their use by human populations, whether for food, fiber, habitat, or recreation, it is not surprising that they have been well studied, particularly in North America, and thus have a rich literature going back many years. However, for the very reason of that intensive use, temperate deciduous forests have proved to be an ecological moving target, as timber harvesting, air pollution, and introduced pests (e.g., insects and parasites) have represented a chronic assault on the structure and function of these ecosystems.


2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koustubh Sharma ◽  
Raghunandan Singh Chundawat ◽  
Joanna Van Gruisen ◽  
Asad Rafi Rahmani

Abstract:At the landscape level, the four-horned antelope is confined to tropical dry deciduous forests and within these, their distribution is patchy. Various factors have been proposed as determinants for their patchy distribution within landscapes, but none provided an adequate explanation. We hypothesized that availability of a constant supply of forage influenced the species distribution. We found that the four-horned antelope mainly fed on fruits and flowers, and that a total of 60% of the tree species in Panna Tiger Reserve bore fruits at different times of the year. High tree species richness in habitat patches was considered a surrogate for constant supply of forage for the four-horned antelope. Data from 547 sighting locations between 2002 and 2006 and six spatial layers were analysed using maximum entropy to produce a probability distribution model for the four-horned antelope in Panna Tiger Reserve. Our model predicted that habitat patches summing up to only 9.5% of the 543 km2 of Panna Tiger Reserve had high probability of distribution (>0.5) of four-horned antelope. Although all variables contributed to the distribution model of the four-horned antelope, explanatory power was highest for tree species richness within habitat patches. The distribution of four-horned antelope within tropical dry deciduous forests can be treated as an indicator of high tree diversity and hence habitat quality.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (01) ◽  
pp. 09-27
Author(s):  
S. P.S. Kushwaha ◽  
G. D. Bhatt ◽  
D. M. Tadvi ◽  
S. Nandy

This study focused on the ecological and ethnobotanical characteristics of the natural forests, forest plantations, and forest orchards in the Gujarat state of India through an extensive field survey of trees, shrubs, and herbs over a span of four years. We inventoried 345 tree, 345 shrub, and 1,380 herb plots using a stratified random sampling design. In all, 706 species [trees (224), shrubs (68), and herbs (414)] were recorded. The highest number of species were noted in teak mixed dry deciduous forest (207), followed by scrub (132), thorn forest (91), grassland (78), teak mixed moist deciduous forest (51), forest plantations (34), degraded forest (30), Prosopis juliflora scrub (24), forest orchard (19), ravine thorn forest (16), Anogeissus pendula forest (8), riverain forest (8), Eucalyptus plantation (6), mangrove forest (1), and mangrove scrub (1). Fabaceae was observed to be the dominant family. Out of total species, twenty-nine (29) species were found to be rare (25), endangered (2), and threatened (2). Fabaceae was also the dominant family for rare, endangered, and threatened (RET) species. Six endemic species were recorded. The highest value of Shannon’s Index of plant diversity was noticed in teak mixed dry deciduous forest (3.14), followed by teak mixed moist deciduous forest (2.96), ravine thorn forest (2.08), forest plantations (1.97), thorn forest (1.64), riverine forest (1.41), and degraded forest (1.49). Two hundred fifty-two species, including trees (24), shrubs (101), herbs (123), climbers (3), and bamboo (1) found to be ethnobotanically important. Fabaceae happened to be the dominant family in terms of ethnobotanically important plants too.


2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Marek Matuszkiewicz ◽  
Elena Bielonowska ◽  
Anna Kowalska ◽  
Nadjeżda Cariewska ◽  
Jarosław Baranowski ◽  
...  

Abstract During geobotanical studies in the north-eastern border of hemi-boreal zone, in Valday (NW Russia), rare eutrophic deciduous forests dominated by oak Quercus robur were observed. A comparison of these forests with the model of European deciduous forest in Białowieża National Park (NE-Poland) indicates a great similarity. Therefore, eutrophic deciduous forests in Valday can be classified to the Querco-Fagetea class, the Fagetalia sylvaticae order and to the Capinion betuli alliance, despite the absence of hornbeam Carpinus betulus in the region. Rarity of eutrophic deciduous forests in Valday region results probably from strong anthropogenic pressure in the past.


2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1753-1762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine J Small ◽  
Brian C McCarthy

To better understand the response of eastern deciduous forest herbs to microenvironmental changes associated with logging, the effects of experimental light and soil compaction treatments were examined in six herbaceous plant species characteristic of varying successional stages. We found severe growth reductions and increased mortality of Osmorhiza claytonii (Michx.) C.B. Clarke, a shade-tolerant forest perennial, when grown in full sun and greater soil compaction. Deeply shaded conditions, similar to those beneath regenerating forests, resulted in reduced growth of early successional species such as Galium aparine L., and Eupatorium rugosum Houtt. Growth of other species such as Geum canadense Jacq., and Elymus hystrix L. appeared to increase in the patchy, intermediate light treatment mimicking mature eastern deciduous forests. Soil compaction caused severe reductions in height and biomass of Eupatorium rugosum and O. claytonii, early- and late-successional species, respectively. While harvested stands experience relatively uniform light environments, canopy gaps and sunflecks in mature eastern deciduous forests create heterogeneous light environments often correlated with recruitment, growth, and diversity of understory herbs. Therefore, management approaches that minimize alteration of forest environments and mimic natural disturbance patterns may be important to the maintenance and regeneration of forest herbs.


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