Long term monitering of vegetation in a tropical deciduous forest in Mudumalai,southern India

Sukumar, R and Dattaraja, HS and Suresh, HS and Radhakrishnan, J and Vasudeva, R and Nirmala, S and Joshi, NV (1992) Long term monitering of vegetation in a tropical deciduous forest in Mudumalai,southern India. In: Current Science (Bangalore), 62 (9). pp. 608-616.

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Abstract

As part of an international network of large plots to study tropical vegetation dynamics on a long-term basis, a 50-hectare permanent plot was set up during 1988-89 in the deciduous forests of Mudumalai, southern India. Within this plot 25,929 living woody plants (71 species) above 1 cm DBH (diameter at breast height) were identified, measured, tagged and mapped. Species abundances corresponded to the characteristic log-normal distribution. The four most abundant species (Kydia calycina, Lagerstroemia microcarpa, Terminalia crenulata and Helicteres isora) constituted nearly 56% of total stems, while seven species were represented by only one individual each in the plot. Variance/mean ratios of density showed most species to have clumped distributions. The population declined overall by 14% during the first two years, largely due to elephant and fire-mediated damage to Kydia calycina and Helicteres isora. In this article we discuss the need for large plots to study vegetation dynamics.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Current Science (Bangalore)
Publisher:	Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Indian Academy of Sciences.
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	05 May 2011 06:26
Last Modified:	05 May 2011 06:26
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/37196

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