Phytosociological study of plant species in three tropical dry deciduous forests of Birbhum District, West Bengal, India
Paper Details
Phytosociological study of plant species in three tropical dry deciduous forests of Birbhum District, West Bengal, India
Abstract
Birbhum district of West Bengal, India harbours floristically important Northern Tropical Dry Deciduous forests and is quite enrich with phytodiversity. But no quantitative analysis of forest structure, its phytosociology and status of the plant species has been carried out in the forest areas of Birbhum district. In this scenario, an attempt has been made to analyze the vegetation structure, composition and diversity of plant species in three forest areas of the district (Illambazar, Chorchor and Ganpur) following standard ecological methods. The importance value index (IVI) of total 486 tree individuals belonging to 20 species has been determined.Shorearobusta Gaertn. f. is the dominant tree species showed maximum IVI value in each three forest areas. Madhuca longifolia (Koenig) Macbride and Buchanania lanzan Spreng. have been identified as the next dominant species in the forest areas. The IVI values of rest 17 tree species were found unsatisfactory. Diameter class of the tree species ranged from 05-10 cm. Here, the Shannon- Weiner index (H’) ranged from 0.11- 0.48 in Illambazar forest, 0.08-0.50 in Chorchor forest and 0.18-0.95 in Ganpur forest. In Chorchor and Ganpur forests, the density distribution pattern of tree species showed a typical reverse J-shaped curve and in Illambazar forest, it was found as A-shaped curve. Ground vegetation comprises of species of 6 shrubs, 8 herbs and 12 climbers and saplings of 9 species. This study will provide the baseline information for effective conservation of phytoresources of these three forest areas of Birbhum district.
Ayyappan N, Parthasarthy N. 1999. Biodiversity inventory of trees in a large scale permanent plot of tropical evergreen forest at Varagalaiar, Anamalai, Western Ghats, India. Biodiversity and Conservation 8(11), 1533-1554.
Bhadra AK, Dhal NK, Rout NC, Reddy VR. 2010. Phytosociology of the tree community of Gandhamardan hill ranges. The Indian Forester 136(5), 610-620.
Bhattacharya K, Yousuf S, Gupta Bhattacharya S. 2003. Pollen analysis in reconstructing modern vegetation changes in lateritic zones of West Bengal. In: Anupama K and Achyuthan H, Ed. Late Quaternary Environment Change: Emerging Issues. Pondicherry, India: French Institute, 157-160.
Champion HS, Seth SK. 1968. A revised survey of forest types of India. Dehradun, India: Manager of Publication.
Curtis JT. 1959. The vegetation of Wisconsin- an ordination of plant communities. Madison Wisconsin, USA : University Wisconsin Press.
Curtis JT, McIntosh RP. 1950. The interrelation of certain analytic and synthetic phytosociological characters. Ecology 31, 434 – 55.
Gupta Joshi H. 2012. Vegetation structure, floristic composition and soil nutrient status in three sites of tropical dry deciduous forest of West Bengal, India. Indian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Life Sciences 2(2), 355-364.
Hare MA, Lantagne DO, Murphy PG, Chero H. 1997. Structure and tree species composition in a subtropical dry forest in the Dominican Republic: Comparision with a dry forest in Puerto Rico. Tropical Ecology 38(1), 1-17.
Krishnamurthy YL, Prakasha HM, Nanda A, Krishnappa M, Dattaraja HS, Suresh HS. 2010. Vegetation structure and floristic composition of a tropical dry deciduous forest in Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka, India. Tropical Ecology 51(2), 235-246.
Kumar JIN, Kumar RN, Bhoi RK, Sajish PR. 2010.Tree species diversity and soil nutrient status in three sites of tropical dry deciduous forest of western India. Tropical Ecology 51(2), 273-279.
Kushwaha PS, Nandy S. 2012. Species diversity and community structure in sal (Shorearobusta) forests of two different rainfall regimes in West Bengal, India. Biodiversity Conservation 21, 1215– 1228.
Manna S, Ghara TK, Ray D, Roy A. 2013. Phytoso-ciological analysis of a traditionally managed sacred grove in transitional ecosystem of eastern lateritic part of India. Eur-asian Journal of Bioscience 7, 10-20.
Misra R. 1968. Ecology Work book. New Delhi, India : Oxford & IBH Co, 1-242.
Murali KS, Kavitha A, Harish RP. 2003. Spatial patterns of trees and shrub species diversity in Savandurga State Forest, Karnataka. Current Science 84(6), 808-813.
Murphy PG, Lugo AE. 1986a. Structure and biomass of subtropical dry forest in Puerto Rico. Biotropic 18(2), 89-96.
Murphy PG, Lugo AE. 1986b. Ecology of tropical dry forests. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 17, 67-88.
Parthasarthy N, Sethi P. 1997. Tree and Liana species diversity and population structure in a tropical dry evergreen forest in south India. Tropical Ecology 38(1), 19-30.
Raghubanshi AS, Tripathi A. 2009. Effect of disturbance, habitat fragmentation and alien invasive plants on floral diversity in dry tropical forest of Vindhyan Highlands: a review. Tropical Ecology 50(1), 57-69.
Rahaman CH, Ghosh A, Mandal S. 2008. Studies on ethnomedicinal uses of plants by the tribals of Birbhum district, West Bengal. Indian Journal of Environment and Ecoplanning 15(1-2), 71-78
Rahaman CH, Ghosh A, Mandal S. 2009. Studies on ethnoveterinary medicinal plants used by the tribals of Birbhum district, West Bengal. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 31, 333- 338
Rahaman CH, Pradhan B. 2011. A study on the ethnomedicinal uses of plants by the tribal people of Birbhum district, West Bengal. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 35(3), 529 – 534.
Rasingam L, Parthasarthy N. 2009.Tree species diversity and population structure across major forest formations and disturbance categories in Little Andaman Island, India. Tropical Ecology 50(1), 89-102.
Sahu SC, Dhal NK, Mohanty RC. 2012. Tree species diversity, distribution and population structure in a tropical dry deciduous forest of Malygiri hill ranges, Eastern India. Tropical Ecology 53(2), 163-168.
Sahu SC, Dhal NK, Reddy CS, Pattanaik C, Brahmam M. 2007. Phytosociological study of tropical dry deciduous forest of Boudh district, Orissa, India. Research Journal of Forestry 1, 66-72.
Shannon CE, Wiener W. 1963. The mathematical theory of communication. Illinois, USA : Urban University Press.
Shukla RP. 2009. Patterns of plant species diversity across Terai landscape in north-eastern Uttar-Pradesh, India. Tropical Ecology 50(1), 111-123.
Singh JS, Singh SP, Saxena AK, Rawat YS. 1985. The forest vegetation of Silent Valley in India. In: Chadwick AC and Sutton SL, Ed. Tropical Rain Forest: The Leeds Symposium. Leeds, U.K : Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society 25-52.
Sukumar R, Dattaraja HS, Suresh HS, Radhakrishna R, Nirmala SV, Joshi NV. 1992. Long-term monitoring of vegetation in a tropical deciduous forest in Mudumalai, southern India. Current Science 62(9), 608-610.
Tripathi KP, Singh B. 2009. Species diversity and vegetation structure across various strata in natural and plantation forests in Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, north India. Tropical Ecology 50(1), 191 – 200.
Visalakshi N. 1995. Vegetation analysis of two tropical dry evergreen forests in southern India. Tropical Ecology 36(1), 117-127.
Bandana Pradhan, Chowdhury Habibur Rahaman, 2015. Phytosociological study of plant species in three tropical dry deciduous forests of Birbhum District, West Bengal, India. J. Biodiv. Environ. Sci., 7(2), 22-31.
Copyright © 2015 by the Authors. This article is an open access article and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.