Impact of anthropogenic disturbances on riparian forest ecology and ecosystem services in Southern India

Abstract

This article highlights the impact of anthropogenic disturbance on forest structure and plant diversity in the riparian forest in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka, Southern India. We clustered 11 transects into groups with low and high anthropogenic disturbances. In total, 73 tree species were recorded on 11 transects, of which 57 species were found in less-disturbed sites and 39 species in high-disturbed sites. Shannon-Wiener diversity confirmed higher values for less-disturbed sites (3.2 ± 0.7) compared with high-disturbed sites (2.7 ± 0.5). Evenness index suggested no complete evenness in the two sites. Mean species richness and number of individuals in the majority girth classes were found to be higher in less-disturbed sites than in high-disturbed sites. Non-native plants dominated the high-disturbed sites. The occurrence of native and nonnative species was correlated with the level of disturbance. Current disturbance intensities may have led to loss of native species such as Ixora bracheata, Madhuca latifolia, Syzygium cumini and Terminalia arjuna in riparian forests. This study concludes that species-rich areas in the riparian forests are under threat. Protection of these areas should be prioritized in policy, because anthropogenic disturbance has led to decreasing riparian forest species diversity and structure.

Potential of exclosure on aboveground biomass carbon stock and ecological fitness of woody species in Jabi Tehnane district, northwestern Ethiopia

“…Importance value index is used to compare the ecological significance of a species (Kent and Coker 1992;Levesque et al 2011;Sunil, Somashekar, and Nagaraja 2011 In overall WG site, Vernonia auriculifera (55.86%, Average IVI value), Cupressus lustanica (55.28%), and Bersama abyssinica (21.07%) were the three top ecologically adapted species. This might be related to its higher value in animal resistance and less palatability.…”

Composición, diversidad y estructura de la vegetación de bosques ribereños en el centro sur de Chile

“…Sin embargo, contrario a los resultados del presente trabajo, Suzuki et al (2002) encontraron menor densidad de individuos con dap > 5 cm en el bosque ribereño, posiblemente debido al mayor grado y frecuencia de perturbaciones naturales que sufren los bosques que evaluaron. Así mismo, contrario a lo esperado, en el bosque ribereño se encontró una menor cobertura y riqueza de especies exóticas asilvestradas en comparación con el bosque de ladera, a pesar de la mayor incidencia de perturbaciones naturales (Hood y Naiman 2000, Sunil et al 2011. Es posible que la mayor cobertura del estrato 1 -5 m (sotobosque) encontrada en el bosque ribereño restrinja un mayor ingreso de la radiación solar; y con ello, limita la regeneración de las especies exóticas.…”

“…De este modo, actividades asociadas a la agricultura, la ganadería, la urbanización y las plantaciones forestales con especies exóticas, afectan a la biodiversidad y servicios ecosistémicos de estos ecosistemas (Méndez-Toribio et al 2014). Además, debido a los frecuentes procesos de perturbación, son más susceptibles de sufrir procesos de invasión de especies exóticas (Hood y Naiman 2000, Sunil et al 2011. Por las razones mencionadas, se han planteado diversas medidas para conservar la biodiversidad de este tipo de ecosistema, tales como, el establecimiento de zonas buffer alrededor de ellos, lo que permite reducir las fuentes de alteración que los puedan afectar (Goebel et al 2003, Boothroyd et al 2004, Langer et al 2008 En Chile, los estudios sobre las particularidades de los bosques ribereños son limitados (Altamirano y Lara 2010).…”

Editorial

“…Sunil et al 2011;Nandy & Kumar Das 2013), but few studies have focused on the question whether native or exotic tree species contribute differently to ecosystem service provision. Furthermore in this Issue, Alamgir et al (2014) provide a review of ecosystem services research in Australia in relation to climate change and its impact.…”