Abstract
The 20 km-50 km-wide belt of tropical dry evergreen forest inland from the southeastern coastline of India has undergone biodiversity loss due to timber harvest and agriculture in the last 200 years. Reforestation restores ecosystem function and increases population sizes and diversity. Sadhana Forest reforested an area of 28 ha and replenished the water table through intensive soil moisture conservation. Results show rapid growth of planted native species and germination of two species of dormant Acacia seeds. Using standardised inventory methods, we documented 75 bird, eight mammal, 12 reptile, five amphibian, 55 invertebrate species, and 22 invertebrate orders. Bird abundance at point count stations, invertebrate sweep net captures and leaf count detections, and Odonate and Lepidopteran visual detections along fixed-paced transects were significantly greater in areas with native plants. Sadhana Forest's reforestation demonstrates the potential to restore ecosystems and replenish water tables, vital components to reversing ecosystem degradation, and corroborates reforestation efforts in other regions of the world.
Highlights
Human population growth and agricultural expansion has been identified as the driving force in deforestation on the local, regional, and global scale (Acheampong et al, 2019; Binsangou et al, 2018; Carr, 2009; Geist and Lambin, 2002; Oyetunji et al, 2020)
Our standardised measures of faunal diversity and abundance coupled with the cumulative list of taxa detected over the six weeks of our bioinventory indicate Sadhana Forest’s reforestation has attracted a diverse community of vertebrate and invertebrate species
Bird diversity regressed with the proportion of native plants at each point count did not show a significant correlation, bird diversity hotspots were associated with areas with more native vegetation – see below
Summary
Human population growth and agricultural expansion has been identified as the driving force in deforestation on the local, regional, and global scale (Acheampong et al, 2019; Binsangou et al, 2018; Carr, 2009; Geist and Lambin, 2002; Oyetunji et al, 2020). TDEF are two-layered evergreen forests that experience six dry months a year (Muthumperumal and Parthasarathy, 2016) They are one of the 16 minor and 6 major forest types in India and are located within a narrow band along the southeast corridor of India. This forest type is being threatened by urbanisation, agriculture, and climate change resulting in a species extinction rate of around 0.8%–2% per year (Everard, 2018; Nithaniyal et al, 2017). TDEF only grow on a belt of vegetation between 20 and 50 km wide inland from the southeast coastline of India, and this narrow distribution coupled with the coastal proximity makes them vulnerable to human impact (Muthumperumal and Parthasarathy, 2016; Pyles et al, 2018; Reddy et al, 2018)
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