Forest Ecosystems Forest Ecosystems International Journal of Forestry Research
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International Journal of Forestry Research Forest Ecosystems Forest Ecosystems International Journal of Forestry Research Forest Ecosystems Copyright © 2012 Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. This is a focus issue published in “International Journal of Forestry Research.” All articles are open access articles distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Editorial Board Han Chen, Canada Kurt Johnsen, USA Timo Pukkala, Finland Chris Cieszewski, USA Chandra Prakash Kala, India Robin Reich, USA Piermaria Corona, Italy Seppo Kellomaki,¨ Finland Scott D. Roberts, USA Qing-Lai Dang, Canada Kihachiro Kikuzawa, Japan Lisa Samuelson, USA Daniel C. Dey, USA Guy R. Larocque, Canada John Sessions, USA Yousry El-Kassaby, Canada Harri Makinen,¨ Finland Hubert Sterba, Austria Edward Farrell, Ireland Azim Mallik, Canada Andrew J. Storer, USA Mark Finney, USA Timothy Martin, USA Michael Tausz, Australia Jianbang Gan, USA Brian C. McCarthy, USA I. B. Vertinsky, Canada Frank Gilliam, USA Guillermo Mendoza, USA Kristiina Vogt, USA Andrew M. Gordon, Canada Ram Oren, USA Contents Rainfall and Elevation Influence the Local-Scale Distribution of Tree Community in the Southern Region of Western Ghats Biodiversity Hotspot (India), Shijo Joseph, K. Anitha, V. K. Srivastava, Ch. Sudhakar Reddy, A. P. Thomas, and M. S. R. Murthy Volume 2012, Article ID 576502, 10 pages Assessing Forest Production Using Terrestrial Monitoring Data, Hubert Hasenauer and Chris S. Eastaugh Volume 2012, Article ID 961576, 8 pages Participatory Resource Mapping for Livelihood Values Derived from the Forest in Ekondo-Titi Subregion, Cameroon: A Gender Analysis, Daniel B. Etongo and Edinam K. Glover Volume 2012, Article ID 871068, 9 pages Terrestrial Liming As a Restoration Technique for Acidified Forest Ecosystems, Sarah E. Pabian, Shawn M. Rummel, William E. Sharpe, and Margaret C. Brittingham Volume 2012, Article ID 976809, 10 pages The Wood, the Trees, or the Forest? Carbon in Trees in Tasmanian State Forest: A Response to Comments,M.T.Moroni,T.H.Kelley,M.L.McLarin,andS.M.Read Volume 2012, Article ID 848502, 6 pages Analysis of Soil-Vegetation Interrelationships in a South-Southern Secondary Forest of Nigeria, D. D. Eni, A. I. Iwara, and R. A. Offiong Volume 2012, Article ID 469326, 8 pages An Ecological Comparison of Floristic Composition in Seasonal Semideciduous Forest in Southeast Brazil: Implications for Conservation,Sergio´ de Faria Lopes, Ivan Schiavini, Ana Paula Oliveira, and Vagner Santiago Vale Volume 2012, Article ID 537269, 14 pages Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Forestry Research Volume 2012, Article ID 576502, 10 pages doi:10.1155/2012/576502 Research Article Rainfall and Elevation Influence the Local-Scale Distribution of Tree Community in the Southern Region of Western Ghats Biodiversity Hotspot (India) Shijo Joseph,1, 2, 3 K. Anitha,2, 4 V. K. Srivastava,1 Ch. Sudhakar Reddy,1 A. P. Thomas,4 andM.S.R.Murthy1 1 Forestry and Ecology Division, National Remote Sensing Centre, Indian Space Research Organization, Hyderabad 500 625, India 2 Conservation Research Group (CRG), St. Albert’s College, Kochi 682 018, India 3 Forests and Environment Program, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor 16115, Indonesia 4 Advanced Centre of Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development, School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala 686 560, India Correspondence should be addressed to Shijo Joseph, [email protected] Received 18 October 2011; Revised 22 February 2012; Accepted 23 February 2012 Academic Editor: Guofan Shao Copyright © 2012 Shijo Joseph et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The present study characterises the tree communities with respect to topographic and climatic variables and identifies the most important environmental correlate of species richness in the southern region of Western Ghats Biodiversity Hotspot, India. Digitally derived environmental variables in combination with tree species richness information were analysed using Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) to characterise the communities. Multiple regression technique based on stepwise backward elimination was used to identify the most important environment correlate of species richness. Canonical correspondence analysis results in six major tree communities along the first and second axes. Rainfall is the dominant environmental gradient influencing vegetation patterns on the first CCA axis while elevation showed the highest correlation with the second CCA axis. Backward elimination regression technique yielded rainfall as the most important environmental correlate of species richness. Results were in agreement with the observations in the Neotropics that rainier areas maintain high species diversity. 1. Introduction core of predictive geographical modelling in ecology [13]. Today’s concern about biodiversity losses and ecosystem Tropical forests are unique in many aspects such as high services suggest that forest classifications based on species diversity [1], high standing biomass and carbon storage composition are needed, along with the information on how [2], and global net primary productivity [3]. There have many species are shared between different forest types. This been many attempts to understand the structural complexity information in combination with the key environmental and species diversity of these ecosystems spanning over correlates is important for natural reserve area planning and three decades [1, 4–11]. While a complete perception of the management under global change scenarios. tropical forest still remains a challenge, the degradation and The importance of climate to map animal and plant deforestation is hastening on the other side. Information distribution was recognized during the early stages of on distribution of tree communities along environmental nineteenth century [14]. Climate in combination with other gradients has vital role in understanding their ecology as physical elements of the environment has been used to derive well as their conservation and management. Quantification vegetation patterns at the global scale [15, 16]. More recently, of such species-environment relationships yields valuable studies have revealed regional variability in vegetation types insights into ecological processes such as resource par- with respect to topography, seasonality, soil types, and water titioning and niche differentiation [12] and forms the and nutrient availability [17–22]. However, most of these 2 International Journal of Forestry Research studies were carried out in the Neotropics in comparison 2.2. Field Sampling and Environmental Data. Astratified with the Old World tropics [23].Notableexceptionsinclude transect survey was adopted for the study. The strata were studies conducted by Pascal [24], Gimaret-Carpentier et al. delineated considering the long-term climatic observations [25, 26], Davidar et al. [27, 28], and Joseph et al. [12]. and altitudinal variation in the study area. Similarly, most of the studies were conducted in the tropical Though there were a few weather stations scattered over humid forests ignoring the other tropical formations, partic- the area, the datasets available from these stations were ularly dry forests. Clearly, these patterns reflect the biases that for a maximum of five years [40]. Therefore the present characterize tropical biology [29]. study used a global database called Worldclim [41]. This is Western Ghats, located near to the western coastline of the station data during the period of 1950–2000 and was India, is one of the “Hottest Hotspots” of biological diversity interpolated to monthly climate surfaces at 1 km spatial res- in the Old World tropics [8]. It contains more than 30% olution using a thin-plate smoothing spline algorithm with of all plant and vertebrate species found in India, in less latitude, longitude, and elevation as independent variables than 6% of the country’s landmass. It is also recognized [41].Theannualaveragetemperature(◦C) and rainfall (mm) as one among the 200 globally most important ecoregions were calculated from the monthly datasets (Figure 2). The [30]. Of the four thousand species of flowering plants known topographic variables such as elevation (m), slope (angle from the Western Ghats, 1500 are endemic [31]. In spite of of inclination in degrees), and aspect (direction of slope these striking statistics, biodiversity in the Western Ghats is in degrees) were derived from Shuttle Radar Topographic threatened by a range of anthropogenic pressures. Menon Mission (SRTM) data (Figure 2). Further, the SRTM digital and Bawa [32] estimated that between 1920 and 1990 forest elevation model was placed over climatic data to study the cover in the Western Ghats declined by 40%, resulting in changes in climatic parameters with respect to elevation. a fourfold increase in the number of fragments and an Four strata were delineated and transects sampling was 83% reduction in size of forest patches. The yearly rate of conducted in these strata. Circular plots of 10 m radius forest loss has been estimated at 0.57% [32], 0.9% [33], and (plot size—314 m2) were laid on every 200 m interval along 1.16% [34] in unprotected areas while