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.

This study deals with the differential response of Lantana camara L. (lantana) cover on the forest structure, regeneration and expected future compositional change of tree species in the Vindhyan dry deciduous tropical forest of India. A total of 90 quadrats, distributed over three sites, differing in lantana cover (low; 0-30%, medium; 31-60% and high; 61-100%), were used to enumerate the tree species. A total of 37 species with 14851 stems were enumerated from the three study sites, which were in gradient of lantana cover. Number of species varied from 21 to 30, while the number of individuals varied from 3408 to 7458 per site with former in high and later in low lantana cover. PCA ordination and Bray-Curtis cluster analysis revealed that the sites were not very unique with tree composition but showed marked uniqueness of sites in terms of seedling composition. The distinctness of species composition in the seedling stage is indicative of marked temporal dynamics, of this lantana invaded forest. The site wise regeneration analysis with the relative density of tree species at each life cycle stage (adult, sapling and seedling) showed that regeneration of species is poor at high-invaded site. The least invaded site indicated good regeneration with many new species emerging. Such differential change in vegetation composition at different lantana cover may be attributed to changed light and fire regime and also due to increased allelopathic suppression of tree seedlings. In conclusion lantana cover is suppressing regeneration and reducing availability of forest resources, which is of serious human concern.

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