Species diversity and community structure in sal (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Shorea robusta</Emphasis>) forests of two different rainfall regimes in West Bengal,India |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Satya?Prakash?Singh?KushwahaEmail author Subrata?Nandy |
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Institution: | (1) Forestry and Ecology Department, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Indian Space Research Organisation, Dehradun, 248001, India |
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Abstract: | Knowledge on the structure and composition of the plant communities has enormous significance in conservation and management
of forests. The present study aimed to assess the community attributes, viz., structure, composition and diversity in the
moist and dry sal (Shorea robusta) forests in the West Bengal province of India and compare them with the other sal forests of India. The phytosociological
data from these forests were quantitatively analysed to work out the species richness, diversity, evenness, dominance, importance
value, stand density and the basal area. The analysis showed that plant richness and diversity in moist sal forests of northern
West Bengal are higher than the dry sal forests of south-west Bengal; a total of 134 tree (cbh ≥30 cm), 113 shrub and 230
herb species were recorded in the moist sal forest compared to 35 tree, 41 shrub and 96 herb species in dry sal forest. Papilionaceae
was observed to be the dominant family. Dry sal forests had higher tree dominance (0.81) and stand density (1,006 stems ha−1) but lower basal area (19.62 m2ha−1) while moist sal forest had lower tree dominance (0.18) and stand density (438 stems ha−1) but higher basal area (56.52 m2ha−1). Tree species richness and stem density across girth classes in both the types decreased from the smallest to largest trees,
while the occurrence rate of species increased with increase in girth class. A t-test showed significant differences in species richness, basal area and the stand density at 95% confidence level (p = <0.05) in the two forest types. The CCA indicated very low overall match (canonical correlation value = 0.40) between the
two sets of variables from moist and dry sal types. The differences in these forests could be attributed to the distinct variations
in climatic conditions- mainly the rainfall, disturbance regimes and the management practices. |
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