Details zur Publikation

Kategorie Textpublikation
Referenztyp Zeitschriften
DOI 10.1002/ece3.7514
Lizenz creative commons licence
Titel (primär) Fire alters diversity, composition, and structure of dry tropical forests in the Eastern Ghats
Autor Neeraja, U.V.; Rajendrakumar, S.; Saneesh, C.S. ORCID logo ; Dyda, V.; Knight, T.M.
Quelle Ecology and Evolution
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
Department BZF; iDiv
Band/Volume 11
Heft 11
Seite von 6593
Seite bis 6603
Sprache englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Daten-/Softwarelinks https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.p2ngf1vq8
Supplements https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1002%2Fece3.7514&file=ece37514-sup-0001-Appendix.docx
Keywords Eastern ghats; forest fire; species composition, species diversity; tropical dry forest
Abstract Fire is known to have dramatic consequences on forest ecosystems around the world and on the livelihoods of forest-dependent people. While the Eastern Ghats of India have high abundances of fire-prone dry tropical forests, little is known about how fire influences the diversity, composition, and structure of these communities. Our study aimed to fill this knowledge gap by examining the effects of the presence and the absence of recent fire on tropical dry forest communities within the Kadiri watershed, Eastern Ghats. We sampled plots with and without evidence of recent fire in the Eswaramala Reserve Forest in 2008 and 2018. Our results indicate that even though stem density increases in the recently burned areas, species richness is lower because communities become dominated by a few species with fire resistance and tolerance traits, such as thick bark and clonal sprouting. Further, in the presence of fire, the size structure of these fire-tolerant species shifts toward smaller-sized, resprouting individuals. Our results demonstrate that conservation actions are needed to prevent further degradation of forests in this region and the ecosystem services they provide.
dauerhafte UFZ-Verlinkung https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=24639
Neeraja, U.V., Rajendrakumar, S., Saneesh, C.S., Dyda, V., Knight, T.M. (2021):
Fire alters diversity, composition, and structure of dry tropical forests in the Eastern Ghats
Ecol. Evol. 11 (11), 6593 - 6603 10.1002/ece3.7514