Abstract
The present study describes the floristic composition and dominance pattern of sal forests in Ranchi, Jharkhand, eastern India. Vegetation was studied in 47 belt transects (50 × 100 m) that had 137 plant species (110 identified and 27 unidentified) belonging to 51 families. The family Fabaceae with 17 species (8 spp. belonging to subfamily Faboideae, 6 spp. to Caesalpinioideae and 3 spp. to Mimosoidieae) contributed the most to diversity, followed by Rubiaceae (8 spp.) and Euphorbiaceae (6 spp.). Tree density in sal was inversely related to species richness. Total tree density (≥ 10 cm GBH) in the studied forests was 397 individuals ha−1, with a basal cover of 262.50 m2 ha−1. Important plants of conservation concern are Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb, Andrographis paniculata (Burm.f.) Wall, Sterculiaurens Roxb., Tinospora cordifolia (Willd.) Miers, and Asparagus densiflorus (Kunth) Jessop. Phanerophytes had the highest percentage (71%, with percentage deviation from normal life form of + 25) followed by therophyte (15%, with percentage deviation + 2). Observed percentage deviation from normal life form was much lower (with + 2 percentage deviation) in both chamaephytes (8%) and therophytes (15%), suggesting that the studied sal forests are favorable for supporting various plants species. The forest management strategies should focus on the increasing demands for different timber and non-timber forest products to conserve the plant diversity of these natural forests.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson RC, Loucks OL, Swain AM (1969) Herbaceous response to canopy cover light intensity, and through fall precipitation in coniferous forests. Ecology 50:255–263
Ayyappan N, Parthasarathy N (1999) Biodiversity inventory of trees in a large-scale permanent plot of tropical evergreen forest at Varagalaiar, Anamalais, Western Ghats, India. Biodivers Conserv 8(11):1533–1554
Bharucha F, Dave RN (1944) The biological spectrum of grassland association. J Univ Bombay 13:15–16
Bor NL (1953) Manual of Indian forest botany. Oxford University Press, Bombay
Borchert R (2000) Organismic and environmental controls of bud growth in tropical trees. Dormancy in plants: from whole plant behavior to cellular control. CAB Int 21:87–107
Braun-Blanquet J, Fuller GD, Conard HS (eds) (1965) Plant sociology: the study of plant communities. Hafner, London
Cannell MGR, Grace J (1993) Competition for light: detection, measurement, and quantification. Can J Forest Res 23:1969–1979
Champion HG, Seth SK (1968) A revised survey of forest types of India. Government of India, New Delhi
Cooke T (1958) Flora of Bombay, vol 1. Botanical Survey of India, Calcutta, p 375
Curtis JT, Cottam G (1956) Plant ecology work book: laboratory, field and reference manual. Burgess Publishing Company, Minneapolis
Divakara BN (2015) Floristic analysis, phytosociological studies and regeneration status of tree species in sal forests of Jharkhand, India. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286443392. Accessed 23 Jan 2016
Edwards DM (1996) The trade in non-timber forest products from Nepal. Mt Res Dev 1:383–394
Fox J (1995) Society and non-timber forest products in tropical Asia. East-West Center Occasional Papers Environment Series No. (19)37–51
FRIB (1947) Experimental tapping of sal and blue pine. For Resour India Burma 6(1):88–90
Gautam KH (1990) Regeneration status of sal (Shorea robusta) forests in Nepal. Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Kathmandu, p 11
Gautam KH, Devkota BP (1999) Sal (Shorea robusta) leaves can provide income to some community forestry user groups at Sindhupalchok district. Nepal J For 11:39–46
Greig-Smith P (1964) Quantitative plant ecology, 2nd edn. Butterworths, London, p 256
Greig-Smith P (1983) Quantitative plant ecology, 3rd edn. Blackwell, Oxford, p 359
Hora SL (1949) Satpura hypothesis of the distribution of the Malayan fauna and flora to Peninsular India. Proc Natl Inst Sci 15:309–314
Jha CS, Singh JS (1990) Composition and dynamics of dry tropical forest in relation to soil texture. J Veg Sci 1(5):609–614
Joshi HB (1980) The silviculture of Indian trees. Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, p 471
Kadavul K, Parthasarathy N (1999) Plant biodiversity and conservation of tropical semi-evergreen forest in the Shervarayan hills of Eastern Ghats, India. Biodivers Conserv 8:421–439
Karnik MG, Sharma OP (1968) Cellulose gums from sal (Shorea robusta) bark and Bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus). Indian Pulp Pap 22:451–453
Kaul ON, Sharma DC (1971) Forest type statistics. Indian For 97:432–436
Kershaw KA (1973) Quantitative and dynamic plant-ecology, 3rd edn. ELBS and Edward Arnold Ltd, London, p 308
Khatri PK (2000) Study on biodiversity in tropical forest ecosystem of Satpura National Park, Madhya Pradesh (Doctoral dissertation, Ph.D. thesis. Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun
Kirtikar KR, Basu BD (1975) Indian medicinal plants, vol 1. Jayyed Press, New Delhi
Krishnaswamy VS, Mathauda GS (1954) Phonological behavior of a few forest species at new forest, Dehradun. Indian For 80:124–153
Kumar K, Abbas SG (2012) Ethnomedicinal composition depends on floristic composition: a case studied in sal forests of Jharkhand. Int J Pharm Life Sci 3(5):1710–1719
Kumar A, Prasad S, Singh S (2013) Climbers and lianas distribution in Jharkhand Forests. Indian For 139(12):1121–1125
Kushwaha SP, Nandy S (2012) Species diversity and community structure in sal (Shorea robusta) forests of two different rainfall regimes in West Bengal, India. Biodivers Conserv 21(5):1215–1228
Lakshmanan NK (1962) The application of Raunkiaer’s life-forms. J Ind Bot Soc 41(4):585–589
Lal HS, Singh S (2012) Study of plant biodiversity of Hazaribag district Jharkhand India and its medicinal uses. J Biosci Discov 3(1):91–96
Magurran AE (1988) Why diversity. Ecological diversity and its measurement. Springer, Netherlands, pp 1–5
Majumdar K, Shankar U, Datta BK (2014) Trends in tree diversity and stand structure during restoration: a case study in fragmented moist deciduous forest ecosystems of Northeast India. J Ecosystems 2014:1–10
Margalef R (1958) Temporal succession and spatial heterogeneity in phytoplankton. In: Buzzati-Traverso A (ed) Perspectives in marine biology. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp 323–347
Mathema P (1991) Sal regeneration management. Nepal J For 6(2):1121–1124
May RM, Stumpf MPH (2000) Species-area relations in tropical forests. Science 290:2084–2086
Mishra BP, Tripathi RS, Tripathi OP, Pandey HN (2003) Effect of disturbance on the regeneration of four dominant and economically important woody species in a broad-leaved subtropical humid forest of Meghalaya, northeast India. Curr Sci 84(10):1449–1453
Misra R (1968) Ecology workbook. Oxford & IBH Publishing Company, Calcutta, p 244
Misra MP, Misra PN, Pandey BN (1979) An ecological account of the vegetation of Brahmyoni Hills (Gaya). Proc Indian Sci Congr 3:108–109
Murali KS, Uma S, Shanker U, Ganeshaiah KN, Bawa KS (1996) Extraction of forest products in the forests of Biligirirangan Hills, India and impact of NTFP extraction on regeneration, population structure, and species composition. Ecol Bot 50:252–269
Narayanamurti D, Das NR (1951) A preliminary note on adhesives, building boards and moulding powders from tree barks. Indian For 77(11):706–708
Odum EP (1971) Fundamentals of ecology. W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, p 574
Panday K (1982) Fodder trees and tree fodder in Nepal. Fodder trees and tree fodder in Nepal (Swiss Development Cooperation, Berne)
Pande PK (1999) Comparative vegetation analysis and sal (Shorea robusta) regeneration in relation to their disturbance magnitude in some sal forests. Trop Ecol 40(1):51–61
Pandey SK (2000) Population status and regeneration strategy of some perennial legumes in plantation forests of North-Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Ph.D. thesis, DDU Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, India
Pandey SK, Shukla RP (2003) Plant diversity in managed sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn.) forests of Gorakhpur, India: species composition, regeneration and conservation. Biodivers Conserv 12(11):2295–2319
Pandey S, Yadama GN (1990) Conditions for local level community forestry action a theoretical explanation. Mt Res Dev 10(1):88–95
Pielou EC (1996) The measurement of diversity in different types of biological collections. J Theor Biol 13:131–144
Rahul J, Jain MK (2014) Documentation of floristic inventory along the national highway: a case study of Dhanbad district, Jharkhand, India. J Biodivers Environ Sci 5(6):241–247
Rai SN, Shukla PC (1977) Influence of feeding deoiledsal seed meal (DSSM) with urea and molasses on digestibility and balances of nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium in lactating cows. Indian J Anim Sci 47:111–115
Rajan RP (1995) Sal leaf plate processing and marketing in West Bengal. In: Fox J (ed) Society and non-timber forest products in tropical Asia. East-West Center, Honolulu, pp 27–36
Rajendraprasad M, Krishnan PN, Pushpangadan P (1998) The life form spectrum of sacred groves—a functional tool to analyse the vegetation. Trop Ecol 39(2):211–217
Rao P, Barik SK, Pandey HN, Tripathi RS (1990) Community composition and tree population structure in a sub-tropical broad-leaved forest along a disturbance gradient. Vegetatio 88(2):151–162
Raunkiaer C (1934) The life forms of plant and statistical plant geography. Oxford University Press, Oxford, p 632
Rawat GS, Bhainsora NS (1999) Woody vegetation of Shivaliks and outer Himalaya in north western India. Trop Ecol 40(1):119–128
Reddy CS, Pattanaik C, Mohapatra A, Biswal AK (2007) Phytosociological observations on tree diversity of tropical forest of Similipal Biosphere Reserve, Orissa, India. Taiwania 52:352–359
Satya DK, Nayaka S (2005) Shorea robusta—an excellent host tree for lichen growth in India. Curr Sci 89:594–595
Saxena AK (1979) Ecology of vegetation complex of north-western catchment of river Gola (Doctoral dissertation, Ph.D. thesis, Kumaun University, Nainital, India)
Saxena AK, Pandey P, Singh JS (1982) Biological spectrum and other structural functional attributes of the vegetation of Kumaun Himalaya. Plant Ecol 49(2):111–119
Shakya CM, Bhattarai DR (1995) Market survey of non-wood forest products in Bara and Rautahat districts for operational forest management plans. Forest Management and Utilization Development Protect, Department of Forest, Kathmandu, p 30
Shankar UA (2001) Case of high tree diversity in a sal (Shorea robusta)-dominated lowland forest of Eastern Himalaya: floristic composition, regeneration and conservation. Curr Sci 81(7):776–786
Shannon CE, Wiener W (1963) The mathematical theory of communication. University of Illinois Press, Urbana
Sharma BK (1981) Further studies on seed production in sal (Shorea robusta Gaertn.) crops in Dehra Dun District (UP). Indian For 107(8):505–509
Simpson EH (1949) Measurement of diversity. Nature 163:688
Singh KP, Kushwaha CP (2005) Emerging paradigms of tree phenology in dry tropics. Curr Sci 89(6):964–975
Singh JS, Singh SP (1987) Forest vegetation of the Himalaya. Bot Rev 53:80–92
Singh JS, Singh SP (1992) Forests of Himalaya. Gyanodaya Prakashan, Nainita, p 294
Singh JS, Yadava PS (1974) Seasonal variation in composition, plant biomass, and net primary productivity of a tropical grassland at Kurukshetra, India. Ecol Monogr 44(3):351–376
Singh A, Reddy VS, Singh JS (1995) Analysis of woody vegetation of Corbett National Park, India. Vegetatio 120(1):69–79
Sinha RP, Nath K (1982) Effect of urea supplementation on nutritive value of deoiledsal-meal in cattle. Indian J Anim Sci 52:1165–1169
Siva N, Pitchairamu C, Muthuchelian K (2008) Floristic inventory and quantitative vegetation analysis of tropical dry deciduous forest in Piranmalai Forest, Eastern Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India. Ethnobot Leafl 2(1):25
Sundarapandian SM, Swamy PS (1997) Plant biodiversity at low-elevation evergreen and moist deciduous forests at Kodayar (Western Ghats, India). Int J Ecol Environ Sci 23:363–379
Thacker P, Gautam KH (1994) A socio-economic study of participatory issues in forest management in the Terai. HMGN/FINNIDA
Thakur AS, Khare PK (2011) Study of life-forms and biological spectrum of forest of Sagar district, Madhya Pradesh. In: Vyas D, Paliwal GS, Khare PK, Gupta RK (eds) Microbial biotechnology and ecology. Daya Publishing House, New Delhi, pp 729–740
Tiwari DN (1995) A monograph on sal (Shorea robusta). International Book Distributors, Dehra Dun
Troup RS (1921) The silviculture of Indian trees. Clarendon Press, London
Upadhyay LR (1992) Use of tree fodder in Jhapa and Sunsari Districts in the eastern Terai. Banko Janakari 3(3):17–18
Utkarsh G, Joshi NV, Gadgil M (1998) On the patterns of tree diversity in the Western. Curr Sci 75(6):594–603
Venkat VP, Sharma BK (1978) Studies on production and collection of sal (Shorea robusta Gaer). seeds. Indian For 104(6):414–420
Whitford PB (1949) Distribution of woodland plants in relation to succession and clonal growth. Ecology 30:199–288
Whittaker RH (1975) Communities and ecosystems. MacMillan, New York
Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) for financial assistance for the project “Status, Distribution and Composition of Sal Forests of Ranchi, Jharkhand, Eastern India in relation to Microclimatic as well as Edaphic Conditions” (Ref. No. YSS/2015/000479 dated 12 January 2016). The help and support received from the State Forest Department, Ranchi and local people involved in the survey and sampling are duly acknowledged.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
RK participated in data collection, analysis and interpretation and also drafted the manuscript. PS conceived the study, participated in its design, coordinated during data collection and finalized the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Project funding: This work was supported by Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) under Young Scientist Scheme (Ref. No. YSS/2015/000479 dated 12th January 2016).
The online version is available at http://www.springerlink.com
Corresponding editor: Chai Ruihai.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kumar, R., Saikia, P. Floristic analysis and dominance pattern of sal (Shorea robusta) forests in Ranchi, Jharkhand, eastern India. J. For. Res. 31, 415–427 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-018-0829-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-018-0829-9