Diversity of Lianas in Eastern Himalayas and North-Eastern India

Abstract

Lianas constitute an important component of plant diversity in a wide range of ecosystems. The liana diversity has been reported to have critical role in maintaining ecosystem structure and function, with a predicted greater role to play under changing climate conditions. However, our understanding on the diversity pattern of lianas in different forest ecosystems along an elevation gradient is limited. Studies on lianas in the Eastern Himalayas and North-eastern region of India are very few. In this paper, we review the status of liana research in the two biodiversity hotspots viz., the Himalayas and Indo-Myanmar, and conducted primary studies in selected high diversity forests of the region to understand the patterns of liana diversity along elevation gradient in the Himalayas. The diversity and distribution of lianas in three major forest types representing the dominant ecological zones of the region viz. tropical, montane-subtropical and temperate were studied using liana census protocol of Gerwing et al. (2006). We recorded 196 liana species in three forest types in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Meghalaya in northeastern India through plot-based fi eld survey. The diversity and abundance of lianas were greater in sub-tropical and tropical forests than temperate forests. Threat assessment for liana conservation was suggested for their in situ conservation.

Assessment of liana diversity and carbon stock in differently disturbed tropical dry evergreen forests of southern India

“…At the scale of 0.80 to 1.25 hectare area and for stems ≥ 1cm diameter, our results are comparable with the other studies across the tropics (Table 5). An average richness 18 species ≥ 1cm diameter ha -1 in our study sites coincides with the other studies reported from Indian tropics: Western Ghats-17-23 species 1.08 ha -1 in two montane evergreen forests (Mohandass et al 2015), 19-22 species ha -1 in two tropical forests of northeastern India (Barik et al 2015). However, the average liana richness of this study is much lower than the results obtained from other parts of Asia: India (Muthuramkumar & Parthasarathy 2000, Padaki & Parthasarathy 2000, Muthumperumal & Parthasarathy 2010, South China (Ding & Zang 2009), Africa: Ethiopia (Senbeta et al 2005), Neotropics (Ibarra-Manriquez & Martinez-Ramos 2002, Burnham 2004), Panama (Putz 1984), Australia (Chalmers & Turner 1994) and New Caledonia (Bruy et al 2018).…”

“…This could be attributed to variation in total forest area (TDEFs occurs as patches), forest type and dynamics, stature, macro and micro-climatic condition, and disturbances by various means (overexploitation of resources, illegal cutting of host plants and lianas and grazing by animals, etc.). Putz (1984) The average density of lianas (591 stems ha -1 ) found in this study is higher than the values obtained from other Indian tropics (Muthuramkumar & Parthasarathy, 2000, Muthuramkumar et al 2006, Mohandas et al 2015, Barik et al 2015, Asian tropics (Ding & Zang 2009), Neotropics (Burnham 2004) and Australia (Chalmers & Turner 1994). Whereas liana density is slightly lower than some other peninsular Indian sites (Padaki & Parthasarathy 2000, Muthumperumal & Parthasarathy 2010) and two to four-fold lower than the than the results from New Caledonia (Bruy et al 2018), Neotropics (Putz 1984, Ibarra-Manriquez & Martinez-Ramos 2002, Africa (Senbeta et al 2005).…”

Diversity and distribution patterns of climbing plants in the Himalayan region

“…The similarities of the distribution patterns of climbing plants in the Himalayas and the Indo-Gangetic Plain may be primarily due to similar east-west water gradients. (Singh & Singh, 1987;Hajra et al, 1996) (Srinivasan et al, 2014;Hu & Li, 2015;Thakur & Negi, 2015)。藤本植物是热带亚热带森林物种多样 Gentry, 1991;胡亮, 2011;Hu & Li, 2015) Clinebell et al, 1995;Molina-Freaner et al, 2004;Schnitzer, 2005;Hu et (Tanaka et al, 1983;Rawal & Pangtey 1991;Barik et al, 2015) 原相应段高。例如, 喜马拉雅海拔1,500-2,000 m范 围 内 的 年 降 水 量 在 其 东 部 约 4,000 mm, 中 部 约 2,000 mm, 而 西 部 约 1,000-1,900 mm (Singh & Singh, 1987;Hajra et al, 1996); 而相应的印度河-恒 河平原降水量在东部阿萨姆、孟加拉约1,500-2,500 mm, 比哈尔降水量勉强超过1,000 mm, 而北方邦 及其往西在500-1,000 mm之间 (Hajra et al, 1996) (Hajra et al, 1996;Kumar, 2001)…”