Abstract. Ao A, Changkija S, Tripathi SK. 2020. Species diversity, population structure, and regeneration status of trees in Fakim Wildlife Sanctuary, Nagaland, Northeast India. Biodiversitas 21: 2777-2785. The plant species composition and diversity represent the overall health of the forest ecosystems and provide useful insight on forest conservation, and the species regeneration is important in assessing the potential of the forests to serve the society on sustained basis. This present study aimed to assess the species diversity, population structure, and regeneration status of the trees in temperate forest of Fakim Wildlife Sanctuary, Nagaland, Northeast India. Tree species composition, population structure and regeneration status were analyzed by randomly establishing eight plots of 0.1 ha within the sanctuary. Density, basal area, abundance, evenness, and other diversity indices were calculated for mature trees with girth at breast height (GBH) ≥ 30 cm. A total of 60 tree species belonging to 40 genera and 27 families were recorded. The most dominant families recorded were Lauraceae and Rosaceae. The total tree density recorded from the forest was 432.5 individuals ha-1 with a basal area 42.8 m2 ha-1. Cinnamomum zeylanicum and Lithocarpus pachyphyllus had the highest density with 17.58 individuals ha-1 and Lithocarpus pachyphyllus had the highest basal area with 2.64 m2 ha-1. The species with the highest IVI was Betula alnoides (17.13). Girth class of 30-60 cm had the highest density and basal area with 280 individuals ha-1 and 20.7 m2 ha-1. The diversity indices such as Shannon-Wiener index, Simpson index, Pielou evenness index, and Margalef species richness index were 3.90, 0.93, 0.92, and 11.59, respectively in the wildlife sanctuary. The present study showed that 41% of tree species exhibited good regeneration status, 31% as fair regeneration, 8% as poor regeneration and 20% had no regeneration. The present data will be useful to understand the current status of tree species and will serve as baseline information to the forest department, policymakers and conservationists to develop management plans for the conservation of priority species in the area.

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Anthropogenic activities are altering the structure and functioning of forests and their services to society. However, we know little about the degree to which such activities are changing the health of forests through edge effects in fragmented forests in different regions of the world. The present study was carried out in Minkong Community Reserve Forest of Nagaland (North-east India) with the aim to determine the effects of anthropogenic activities on floristic composition and diversity, population structure, and biomass and carbon (C) stocks in the core zone (CZ) and buffer zone (BZ) of the forest. We established 15 plots of 0.04 ha each in the two forest zones. We identified 31 trees, 18 shrubs, and 22 herbs in the CZ, and 22 trees, 25 shrubs, and 24 herbs in the BZ; tree species diversity was greater in the CZ whereas the diversity of shrubs and herbs was greater in the BZ. The values for tree density and basal area in the CZ and BZ were 303 and 197 individuals ha−1 and 32.6 and 22.2 m2 ha−1, respectively; in contrast, the shrub and herb density increased in the BZ (4470 and 50,200 individuals ha−1) compared to that of the CZ (2530 and 35,500 individuals ha−1). The total stand biomass (including that below-ground) was 327 Mg ha−1 in the CZ and 224 Mg ha−1 in the BZ. Similarly, the total ecosystem C stocks in the CZ and BZ were 224 Mg C ha−1 and 173 Mg C ha−1, indicating that the overall ecosystem C pool including soil in the CZ was approximately 30% greater than the BZ. These results show how fragmentation and anthropogenic disturbance can reduce forest diversity and C stocks and that community forest management can play a role in conserving biodiversity and act as an ecosystem management tool to mitigate climate change.