Community ecology and spatial distribution of trees in a tropical wet evergreen forest in Kaptai national park in Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

Barua

Geology, Ecology, and Landscapes

et al. 2020

Increasing land demands for food production has led to large-scale soil degradation in the hilly regions of south-eastern Bangladesh. An intensification of slash-and-burn techniques, where fallow intervals have shortened considerably in recent years, has led to widespread losses in soil quality. Here we sought to test to what extent do current agroforestry practices in the area, compared with current reforestation efforts, can ameliorate different physicochemical soil properties after the abandonment of slash-and-burn practices. We observed that concentrations of soil organic matter (4.75%), available phosphorous (12.17 μg g −1 ) and exchangeable potassium (0.39 mg kg −1 ) in agroforestry plots were significantly higher than in reforestation (3.18%, 6.50 μg g −1 and 0.21 mg kg −1 , respectively) or slash-and-burn plots (1.83%, 5.90 μg g −1 and 0.03 mg kg −1 , respectively). While reforestation and agroforestry may both serve to restore soil functions but we observed higher benefits in the latter system. Thus, agroforestry systems may be a suitable land management system for replacing ancestral slash and burn techniques but care should be taken to diminish soil compaction.

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Agroforestry shows higher potential than reforestation for soil restoration after slash-and-burn: a case study from Bangladesh

Barua

Geology, Ecology, and Landscapes

et al. 2020

“…Thus, a niche may reflect the position, function, and importance of a species in a community. Interspecific association refers to the interrelation of different species in spatial distribution, reflecting relationship formed by the mutual influence and interaction of various species in different habitats in the community (Gleason 1926, Feroz et al 2014, Chai et al 2016. Accordingly, it can reflect the species' spatial distribution relationship and their functional dependency on the environment.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Niche and interspecific association of dominant tree populations of Zelkova schneideriana communities in eastern China

Shao

Zhang

2021

Bot. Sci.

Background: Zelkova schneideriana Hand.-Mazz., is an endangered species mainly distributed in subtropical China. Currently, little is known about its niche and interspecific association. Questions: What are the niche characteristics of Z. schneideriana and other associated species? What are the interspecific associations between these species? Study sites and dates: Z. schneideriana communities in Jiangsu, China in 2019. Methods: Twenty-one 400 m2 plots were studied for importance value, niche breadth and overlap, interspecific association of Z. schneideriana communities. Results: In 39 species of tree layer, Z. schneideriana had the greatest importance value and niche breadth. For the first 10 dominant species, a considerable difference was detected by the Levins index (1.75 - 19.84) and Shannon-Wiener index (0.77 - 3.02). Forty-four out of the 45 species pairs had the value of niche similarity indices ≤ 0.5; 38 species pairs had the value of niche overlap indices ≤ 0.5. Overall interspecific association was not a significantly negative association for variance ratio < 1. χ2 test and Spearman’s correlation coefficient further revealed that above 60 % of species pairs had negative associations, suggesting most dominant species were slightly associated with other species or even independent. Conclusions: Z. schneideriana was a constructive species. Dissimilarity in environmental requirements was found among most dominant tree species, thus decreasing competition. This is likely due to the unstable community in the early stage of succession.

“…Many floristic studies conducted here such as Heinig (1925) recorded 45 taxa, Uddin et al (1998) 332 species; Nath et al (1998) 85 tree species; Rashid and Chowdhury (2013) 43 taxa; Chowdhury et al (2017) 86 tree species from Sitapahar, while Uddin and Hassan (2012) reported 41 pteridophyte species from Rampahar and Sitapahar reserve forests. From Rampahar, Uddin and Hassan (2012) reported 89 monocots, Feroz et al (2014) 40 species and Rahman et al (2016) 43 tree species and Chowdhury et al (2018) 50 tree. Apart from these 2 areas of Sitapahar and Rampahr Mohajn et al (2016) recorded 69 tree species Kaptai deer breeding centre of Karnaphuli range.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

<strong></strong>Floristic Study of Karnaphuli Range in Kaptai Reserve Forest, Rangamati, Bangladesh

Abdullah¹,

Sarwar²,

Ashrafuzzaman³

et al. 2020

Preprint

A botnical survey was conducted in Kaptai reserve forests under Rangamati district in Bangladesh to study the flora of Karnaphuli range from May 2015 to October 2018. The survey was accompanied by a collection of voucher specimens enumerates 464 plant species belonging to 334 genera under 117 families from the forest range. The survey has confirmed 31 threatened forest species from this area along with many near threatened plant species.