Forest resource conservation has been widely accepted as a key to sustain the local and regional economic development. The forest edges are affected by anthropogenic activities including deforestation, forest fragment...Forest resource conservation has been widely accepted as a key to sustain the local and regional economic development. The forest edges are affected by anthropogenic activities including deforestation, forest fragmentation, selective logging, extraction of non-timber forest products, collection of medicinal plants, recreations, hydroelectric pro- jects and its associated developmental activities, which alter the biodiver- sity. The present study intends to evaluate the edge effect on vegetation structure and species compositions in the tropical forest ecosystems at Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Western Ghats. High species richness （number of species） and Shannon＇s diversity indices were observed in the site IlI （completely undisturbed forest） compared to site I （adjacent to the village/edge of the forest, which is next to the teal（ plantation, severely disturbed forest） and site II （in between the undisturbed forest and mod- erately disturbed forest） while density of tree species showed greater value in site II. Single species such as Tectona grandis （IVI of 80） and Terminaliapaniculata （IVI of 112） were the dominant tree species in site I and site II, respectively, whereas, in site III Terminalia bellirica, Bishofia javanica and Syzgium gardneri shared the dominance. Perturba- tion leads to alien plant invasion particularly Lantana camara, Eupato- rium odoratum and Ageratum conizoides. Site II is at forest transition level because the site is dominated by both natural species as well as plantation species such as Tectona grandis. This site seems to be a buffer zone on natural forest and plantations. Further studies are required to analyse the real patterns of regeneration and dynamic change due to human impact by long term monitoring with the establishment of perma- nent plots.展开更多
文摘Forest resource conservation has been widely accepted as a key to sustain the local and regional economic development. The forest edges are affected by anthropogenic activities including deforestation, forest fragmentation, selective logging, extraction of non-timber forest products, collection of medicinal plants, recreations, hydroelectric pro- jects and its associated developmental activities, which alter the biodiver- sity. The present study intends to evaluate the edge effect on vegetation structure and species compositions in the tropical forest ecosystems at Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Western Ghats. High species richness （number of species） and Shannon＇s diversity indices were observed in the site IlI （completely undisturbed forest） compared to site I （adjacent to the village/edge of the forest, which is next to the teal（ plantation, severely disturbed forest） and site II （in between the undisturbed forest and mod- erately disturbed forest） while density of tree species showed greater value in site II. Single species such as Tectona grandis （IVI of 80） and Terminaliapaniculata （IVI of 112） were the dominant tree species in site I and site II, respectively, whereas, in site III Terminalia bellirica, Bishofia javanica and Syzgium gardneri shared the dominance. Perturba- tion leads to alien plant invasion particularly Lantana camara, Eupato- rium odoratum and Ageratum conizoides. Site II is at forest transition level because the site is dominated by both natural species as well as plantation species such as Tectona grandis. This site seems to be a buffer zone on natural forest and plantations. Further studies are required to analyse the real patterns of regeneration and dynamic change due to human impact by long term monitoring with the establishment of perma- nent plots.
