Biophysical quantification of biodiversity and ecosystems services of forest ecosystems in the Western Ghats: a case study of Uttara Kannada District, India

Joshi, Priya P and Murthy, Indu K and Hegde, Gurunath T and Sathyanarayan, Vani and Bhat, Savithri and Patil, Vishal and Esteves, Tashina and Ravindranath, N H (2018) Biophysical quantification of biodiversity and ecosystems services of forest ecosystems in the Western Ghats: a case study of Uttara Kannada District, India. In: JOURNAL OF FORESTRY RESEARCH, 29 (3). pp. 735-748.

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Abstract

Biodiversity and ecosystem services play key roles in future economic strategies seeking to promote development and prosperity. This study assesses the status of biodiversity and flow of ecosystem services from selected forest types in the Western Ghats. At the sampling sites, the number of tree species ranged from 16 to 79 per hectare depending on the forest type. The estimates for Shannon-Wiener index for trees in the evergreen, moist deciduous and dry deciduous forest plots were 3.02, 2.9 and 1.54, respectively. The total biomass carbon stocks in evergreen, moist deciduous and dry deciduous forests in the study area was 229, 221 and 189 t C/ha, respectively. Analysis of dependency patterns of local communities on forest resources indicated a high dependency on provisional services such as fuelwood, manure and fodder. The study records the highest dependency rates for fuelwood, ranging between 72 and 100% for the three forest types and indicates that forest ecosystems underpin the well-being of the population dependent directly and indirectly on them.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	JOURNAL OF FORESTRY RESEARCH
Publisher:	NORTHEAST FORESTRY UNIV, NO 26 HEXING RD, XIANGFANG DISTRICT, HARBIN, 150040, PEOPLES R CHINA
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belong to NORTHEAST FORESTRY UNIV, NO 26 HEXING RD, XIANGFANG DISTRICT, HARBIN, 150040, PEOPLES R CHINA
Department/Centre:	Division of Interdisciplinary Sciences > Center for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP)
Date Deposited:	04 May 2018 18:49
Last Modified:	23 Oct 2018 14:49
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/59702

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