Abstract
Lantana camara is a dominant invasive shrub in many protected areas of India including the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR). We conducted a study to assess the regeneration potential of endemic native (shola) trees under different levels of Lantana infestation in the upper plateau of NBR. A total of 61 plots in a total area of 0.73ha were sampled, out of which 0.57ha was in Lantana dominated sites and 0.16ha in undisturbed shola forests. The plots were classified as per the level of Lantana infestation (intensive, moderate, and low infestation). We found that regeneration of shola trees, including endemics decreased with increasing intensity of Lantana invasion. No regeneration occurred in the intensively infested plots whereas regeneration was high in undisturbed shola forests.
Highlights
Invasion by alien species is one of the major threats to the local and global biological diversity (D’Antonio & Kark 2002), and is regarded as one among the five top ecosystem disrupters (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005)
Our objective was to assess regeneration of shola trees under different levels of Lantana infestation, and to see which shola species survive under Lantana, because these species could be more useful for shola restoration under Lantana cover
Study area This study was conducted in the reserved forests of Nilgiris South Division (11.20–11.490N & 76.55– 76.680E; Fig. 1) of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR), India
Summary
Invasion by alien species is one of the major threats to the local and global biological diversity (D’Antonio & Kark 2002), and is regarded as one among the five top ecosystem disrupters (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). Since Lantana has spread extensively throughout the country up to altitudes of 2,000m (Sharma et al 1988) It occurs in a wide variety of habitat types ranging from tropical evergreen forests, tropical moist- and dry deciduous forests, tropical scrub forests to subtropical moist and dry deciduous forests (Hiremath & Sundaram 2013). It is prevalent in the Himalaya and Western Ghats (WG) biodiversity hotspots (Shaanker et al 2010) where it affects native plant diversity (Cruz et al 1986). Lantana invasion increases the fuel load making an area prone to fire and the fire in turn, paves the way for more invasion (Hiremath & Sundaram 2005)
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