Comparative assessment of floristic structure, diversity and regeneration status of tropical rain forests of Western Ghats of Karnataka, India

Abstract

Tropical forests are one of the richest landscapes in terms of its richness, diversity and endemicity. The present study was carried out in the Central Western Ghats: one of the hottest hotspot of biodiversity. The aim of the study was to compare floristic diversity in tropical wet evergreen forest between northern and southern parts of Western Ghats of Karnataka. Kodagu district in southern part and Uttara Kannada district in northern part was chosen to assess the same, as these two districts cover highest forest cover in the Western Ghats of Karnataka. In each district all the evergreen forests were sampled with 1000 m X 5 belt transacts. Totally 22 such samplings were done both southern and northern part of Western Ghats. In each of these transacts all the trees measuring e” 30 gbh were enumerated and botanically identified to the species level and the same was used for computation of diversity indices. The richness and diversity was comparatively higher in southern part compared to northern part of Western Ghats, where as the richness of threatened tree species was comparatively higher in northern part of Western Ghats. In addition to the species richness and diversity, the paper also deals with the dominant tree species and families in both the region.