Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T05:33:41.469Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Woody plant seedling distribution under invasive Lantana camara thickets in a dry-forest plot in Mudumalai, southern India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2011

Geetha Ramaswami  and
R. Sukumar
Geetha Ramaswami
Affiliation:
Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
R. Sukumar*
Affiliation:
Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
*
1Corresponding author. Email: rsuku@ces.iisc.ernet.in
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Lantana camara, a shrub of Central and South American origin, has become invasive across dry forests worldwide. The effect of the thicket-forming habit of L. camara as a dispersal and recruitment barrier in a community of native woody seedlings was examined in a 50-ha permanent plot located in the seasonally dry forest of Mudumalai, southern India. Sixty 100-m2 plots were enumerated for native woody seedlings between 10–100 cm in height. Of these, 30 plots had no L. camara thickets, while the other 30 had dense thickets. The frequency of occurrence and abundance of seedlings were modelled as a function of dispersal mode (mammal, bird or mechanical) and affinities to forest habitats (dry forest, moist forest or ubiquitous) as well as presence or absence of dense L. camara thickets. Furthermore, frequency of occurrence and abundance of individual species were also compared between thickets and no L. camara. At the community level, L. camara density, dispersal mode and forest habitat affinities of species determined both frequency of occurrence and abundance of seedlings, with the abundance of dry-forest mammal-dispersed species and ubiquitous mechanically dispersed species being significantly lower under L. camara thickets. Phyllanthus emblica and Kydia calycina were found to be significantly less abundant under L. camara, whereas most other species were not affected by the presence of thickets. It was inferred that, by affecting the establishment of native tree seedlings, L. camara thickets could eventually alter the community composition of such forests.

Keywords

50-ha plotdispersal modeforest habitat affinitiesinvasive plantseasonally dry tropical forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , July 2011 , pp. 365 - 373
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

ARAVIND, N. A., RAO, D., GANESHAIAH, K. N., UMA SHAANKER, R. & POULSEN, J. G. 2010. Impact of the invasive plant, Lantana camara, on bird assemblages at Male Mahadeshwara Reserve Forest, South India. Tropical Ecology 51:325–338.Google Scholar
BELLINGHAM, P. J. & SPARROW, A. D. 2000. Resprouting as a life history strategy in woody plant communities. Oikos 89:409–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BENJAMINI, Y. & HOCHBERG, Y. 1995. Controlling the false discovery rate: a practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B (Methodological) 57:289–300.Google Scholar
BISHT, R. S. & BHATNAGAR, S. P. 1979. Some insects, mammals and birds feeding on Lantana camara Linn. in Kumaon. Indian Journal of Entomology 41:196–197.Google Scholar
BOND, W. J. & MIDGLEY, J. J. 2001. Ecology of sprouting in woody plants: the persistence niche. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 16:45–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
BRANTLEY, S. T. & YOUNG, D. 2010. Linking light attenuation, sunflecks and canopy architecture in mesic shrub thickets. Plant Ecology 206:225–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COLLIER, M. H., VANKAT, J. L. & HUGHES, M. R. 2002. Diminished plant richness and abundance below Lonicera maackii, an invasive shrub. American Midland Naturalist 147:60–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CRAWLEY, M. 2007. The R book. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester. 953 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CRONK, Q. C. B. & FULLER, J. L. 1995. Plant invaders: the threat to natural ecosystems. Chapman and Hall, London. 241 pp.Google Scholar
DRONAMRAJU, K.R. 1960. Selective visits of butterflies to flowers: a possible factor in sympatric speciation. Nature 186:178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
EL-KEBLAWY, A. & AL-RAWAI, A. 2007. Impacts of the invasive exotic Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) D.C. on the native flora and soils of the UAE. Plant Ecology 193:23–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GERHARDT, K. 1996. Effects of root competition and canopy openness on survival and growth of tree seedlings in a tropical seasonal dry forest. Forest Ecology and Management 82:33–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GORDON, D. R. 1998. Effects of invasive, non-indigenous plant species on ecosystem processes: lessons from Florida. Ecological Applications 8:975–989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GRUBB, P. J. 1977. The maintenance of species richness in plant communities: the importance of the regeneration niche. Biological Reviews 52:107–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HARTMAN, K. M. & McCARTHY, B. C. 2008. Changes in forest structure and species composition following invasion by a non-indigenous shrub, Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii). Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 135:245–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HIREMATH, A. J. & SUNDARAM, B. 2005. The fire–lantana cycle hypothesis in Indian forests. Conservation and Society 3:26–42.Google Scholar
HOFFMANN, W. A., LUCATELLI, V. M. P. C., SILVA, F. J., AZEUEDO, I. N. C., MARINHO, M. S., ALBUQUERQUE, A. M. S., LOPES, A. O. & MOREIRA, S. P. 2004. Impact of the invasive alien grass Melinis minutiflora at the savanna-forest ecotone in the Brazilian Cerrado. Diversity and Distributions 10:99–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HONU, Y. A. K. & DANG, Q. L. 2000. Responses of tree seedlings to the removal of Chromolaena odorata Linn. in a degraded forest in Ghana. Forest Ecology and Management 137:75–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IHAKA, R. & GENTLEMAN, R. 1996. R: A language for data analysis and graphics. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics 5:299–314.Google Scholar
KODANDAPANI, N., COCHRANE, M. A. & SUKUMAR, R. 2004. Conservation threat of increasing fire frequencies in the Western Ghats, India. Biological Conservation 18:1553–1561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KOHLI, R. K., DOGRA, K. S., BATISH, D. R. & SINGH, H. P. 2004. Impact of invasive plants on the structure and composition of natural vegetation of Northwestern Indian Himalayas. Weed Technology 18:1296–1300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LIEBERMAN, D. & LI, M. 1992. Seedling recruitment patterns in a tropical dry forest in Ghana. Journal of Vegetation Science 3:375–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MATHUR, G. & MOHAN RAM, H. Y. 1978. Significance of petal colour in thrips-pollinated Lantana camara L. Annals of Botany 42:1473–1476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MATTHEW, K. M. 1971. The high altitude ecology of the lantana. Indian Forester 97:170–171.Google Scholar
MATTHEW, K. M. 1983. The flora of the Tamilnadu Carnatic. Volume 3, part 1, Ranunculaceae-Labiatae (Lamiaceae). Rapinat Herbarium, St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. 1284 pp.Google Scholar
McLAREN, K. P. & McDONALD, M. A. 2003. The effects of moisture and shade on seed germination and seedling survival in a tropical dry forest in Jamaica. Forest Ecology and Management 183:61–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MILLER, P. M. & KAUFFMAN, J. B. 1998. Seedling and sprout response to slash-and-burn agriculture in a tropical deciduous forest. Biotropica 30:538–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MURALI, K. & SETTY, R. 2001. Effect of weeds Lantana camara and Chromolaena odorata growth on the species diversity, regeneration and stem density of tree and shrub layer in BRT sanctuary. Current Science 80:675–678.Google Scholar
MURALI, K. & SUKUMAR, R. 1994. Reproductive phenology of a tropical dry forest in Mudumalai, southern India. Journal of Ecology 82:759–767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MURPHY, P. G. & LUGO, A. E. 1986. Ecology of tropical dry forest. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 17:67–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NORDEN, N., CHAVE, J., CAUBÈRE, A., CHÂTELET, P., FERRONI, N., FORGET, P. & THÉBAUD, C. 2007. Is temporal variation of seedling communities determined by environment or by seed arrival? A test in a neotropical forest. Journal of Ecology 95:507–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NORDEN, N., CHAVE, J., BELBENOIT, P., CAUBÈRE, A., CHÂTELET, P., FORGET, P., RIÉRA, B., VIERS, J. & THÉBAUD, C. 2009. Interspecific variation in seedling responses to seed limitation and habitat conditions for 14 Neotropical woody species. Journal of Ecology 97:186–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PRASAD, S., PITTET, A. & SUKUMAR, R. 2010. Who really ate the fruit? A novel approach to camera trapping for quantifying frugivory by ruminants. Ecological Research 25:225–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SAHU, P. K. & SINGH, J. S. 2008. Structural attributes of lantana-invaded forest plots in Achanakmar–Amarkantak Biosphere Reserve, Central India. Current Science 94:494–500.Google Scholar
SALDANHA, C. J. 1984. Flora of Karnataka Vol.1, Magnoliaceae to Fabaceae. Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. 574 pp.Google Scholar
SALDANHA, C. J. 1996. Flora of Karnataka Vol.2, Podostemaceae to Apiaceae. Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. 304 pp.Google Scholar
SALDANHA, C. J., NICOLSON, D. H. & RAMAMOORTHY, T. P. 1976. Flora of Hassan District, Karnataka, India. Amerind Pub. Co., New Delhi. 956 pp.Google Scholar
SAWARKAR, V. 1984. Lantana camara on wildlife habitats with special reference to the Melghat Tiger Reserve. Cheetal 26:24–38.Google Scholar
SHARMA, B. D., SHETTY, B. V., VIVEKANANDAN, K. & RATHAKRISHNAN, N. C. 1977. Flora of Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary, Tamilnadu. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 75:13–42.Google Scholar
SHARMA, G. P. & RAGHUBANSHI, A. S. 2006. Tree population structure, regeneration and expected future composition at different levels of Lantana camara L. invasion in the Vindhyan tropical dry deciduous forest of India. Lyonia 11:27–39.Google Scholar
SHARMA, G. P. & RAGHUBANSHI, A. S. 2007. Effect of Lantana camara L. cover on local depletion tree population in the Vindhyan tropical dry deciduous forest. Applied Ecology and Environmental Research 5:109–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SUKUMAR, R., DATTARAJA, H. S., SURESH, H. S., RADHAKRISHNAN, J., VASUDEVA, R., NIRMALA, S. & JOSHI, N. V. 1992. Long term monitoring of vegetation in a tropical deciduous forest in Mudumalai, southern India. Current Science 62:608–616.Google Scholar
SUKUMAR, R., SURESH, H. S., DATTARAJA, H. S., SRINIDHI, S. & NATH, C. 2005. Dynamics of a tropical dry forest at Mudumalai (India): climate, fire, elephants and the evolution of life history strategies. Pp. 510–529 in Burslem, D., Pinard, M. & Hartley, S. (eds.). Biotic interactions in the tropics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SURESH, H. S., DATTARAJA, H. S. & SUKUMAR, R. 2010. Relationship between annual rainfall and tree mortality in a tropical dry forest: results of a 19-year study at Mudumalai, southern India. Forest Ecology and Management 259:762–769.CrossRefGoogle Scholar