Comparative Study of Factors Affecting Dependency of Households on Dry Deciduous Forest in Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh (India)

The rural and tribal communities of Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri District depend on forest resources for meeting their domestic energy needs, forest products, and employment. Under Green India Mission, households were randomly selected and surveyed. The data of 61 households from 3 villages of Satanwada range (dry deciduous forest) and 131 households from 4 villages in Pichhore range (dry deciduous scrub forest) was collected through semi-structured questionnaire interviews and direct observation. Generalised Linear Model was used to determine the major factors affecting fuelwood collection. The study revealed the factors affecting the amount of fuelwood collection in Satanwada and Pichhore. Family size of households near to the forest negatively affected the amount of fuelwood collected; opportunity cost of fuelwood collection was lower for them than for families living further away from the forest in Satanwada. In Pichhore, LPG consumption reduced the amount of fuelwood collected, while cow dung complimented the quantity of fuelwood collected. Since the availability of fuelwood was scarce, alternate energy resources became determining factors of the amount of fuelwood collected. In both ranges, the distance of the forest from households had a positive effect on the quantity of fuelwood consumed due to higher opportunity cost and degradation of adjacent forests. The study also revealed a strong correlation between the sampled population percentage of women in villages and the sampled village cattle count. The study also showed the difference of fuelwood collection in Satanwada (8.8 ± 0.6 kg) and Pichhore (6.8 ± 0.4 kg) suggesting that forest degradation correlates with lesser utilisation of forest resources. Hence, the study justifies the need of synergy between public rural provisions of alternative fuel sources with afforestation programs.

A Complete Analysis of Physiochemical Properties, Microbial Diversity of Soil Along with Economically Important Plant Found in a Tropical Dry Deciduous Forest Debdarha, Bargarh, Odisha

Devdarha is a tropical dry deciduous forest situated in Padampur subdivision of Bargarh district Odisha India. It is present near to Odisha Chhattisgarh border having Latitude 21.12035˚N and longitude 83.04503˚E. The forest is bisected by the Ong River. In this investigation there was an attempt had been made to analyze the physicochemical property of soil, Bacterial diversity of forest soil and Dominant economically important plant species found in Devdarha. In this investigation, it was found that soil was slightly acidic soil having a pH 6.8. High water holding capacity, moisture content, organic carbon content, NPK content indicate that it was fertile soil and luxuriant for plant growth. There were four different species of bacteria found among them Rhizobium spp. important for nitrogen fixation. Here we had found 32 economically important plant species belonging to 17 families. This type of investigation gives us an idea about the interaction of biotic and abiotic components of a typical forest ecosystem.

A comparison between time-constrained counts and line transects as methods to estimate butterfly diversity in tropical habitats

Long-term monitoring programmes have revealed catastrophic population declines that are contributing to biodiversity loss. These discoveries and the underlying programmes have been possible because of standardised methods of counting butterflies. Butterflies have been monitored using modified line transects, known in butterfly monitoring schemes as Pollard walks. However, line transects are not feasible in many tropical and mountainous habitats. To tackle this problem, we devised time-constrained (30-min) counts and compared butterfly diversity as estimated through this method with that estimated through line transects (500 m, 10 min) in three tropical habitats in India (evergreen forest, dry deciduous forest and an urban woodland). We tested the efficacy of the two methods to sample species richness and abundance, as well as numbers of rare, endemic and specialist butterflies. We observed greater species richness, and more species of habitat specialists and endemics per sample in time-constrained counts when compared with line transects in evergreen forest, but not in the other two habitats. Thus, time-constrained counts were more efficient at detecting species than line transects in the species-rich evergreen habitat. Apart from this difference, the two sampling methods captured similar levels of species richness and other measures of diversity. Time-constrained counts may thus be viewed as a feasible alternative to line transects to carry out butterfly surveys in tropical and mountainous landscapes. This method is particularly suited for biodiversity assessments and mapping involving citizen science initiatives, which has considerable potential in populous and tech-ready countries such as India.

Diversity pattern of butterfly communities (Lepidoptera) in different habitat types of Nahan, Himachal Pradesh, India

Diversity and similarity of butterfly communities were assessed in three different habitat types in the mountains of Nahan, Himachal Pradesh, from May 2012 to April 2013. A total of 75 species and five families were reported. Proportion of species was highest in deciduous dry forest (49%), followed by Shorea (Saal) forest (34%), and Pinus (Cheer) forest (17%). Family Pieridae was dominant followed by Nymphalidae in all three habitat types. Cluster analysis revealed that Cheer forest stood out clearly from Dry and Saal forest which represents the different species composition. We found significant differences in butterfly diversity in the three forest types based on Shannon index, Simpson dominance index, and Buzas & Gibson’s evenness. These differences may be attributable to variations in host and nectar plant distribution. Of the habitats surveyed, dry deciduous forest appeared to be the most suitable for butterfly conservation.

Tree diversity and natural regeneration in Tropical Dry Deciduous Forest of Panna Tiger Reserve, India

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.

Cataloguing the bacterial diversity in the active ectomycorrhizal zone of Astraeus from a dry deciduous forest of Shorea

The plant microbiome has been considered one of the most researched areas of microbial biodiversity, yet very little information is available on the microbial communities prevailing in the mushroom's ectomycorrhizosphere. Ectomycorrhizal symbioses often result in the formation of a favourable niche which enables the thriving of various microbial symbionts where these symbionts endorse functions, such as quorum sensing, biofilm formation, volatile microbial compound (VOC) production, regulation of microbial gene expression, symbiosis and virulence. The identification of hidden uncultured microbial communities around the active ectomycorrhizal zone of Astraeus from dry deciduous sal forest of Jharkhand, India was carried out using MinION Oxford Nanopore sequencing of 16S rRNA amplicons genes. High richness of Operational Taxonomic Units (1,905 OTUs) was observed. We recorded 25 distinct phyla. Proteobacteria (36%) was the most abundant phylum, followed by Firmicutes (28%), Actinobacteria (10%) and Bacteroidetes (6%), whereas Gammaproteobacteria was the most abundant class of bacterial communities in the active ectomycorrhizal zone. The ectomycorrhizosphere soil has abundant phosphate-solubilising bacteria (PSB). This is the first report of the ectomycorrhizosphere microbiome associated with Astraeus.

A new species of Lophopogon (Poaceae) from Ananthapuramu of Andhra Pradesh, India

A new species of Lophopogon (Poaceae), L. prasannae is described from dry deciduous forest of Ananthapuramu district, Andhra Pradesh, India. This new species shows morphological similarities with L. tridentatus and L. kingii but differs in certain characters, which are discussed below. A detailed description, photographs and taxonomic key are provided for easy identification of the species.