Abstract
Biodiversity erosion particularly in developing countries is a matter of great concern to the global ecological community. Species composition and regeneration indicate the health of forest. This study explored tree species composition and regeneration of natural hill forest of Shitalpur under Chittagong North Forest Division through 27 sample plots of 20 m × 20 m for trees and 2 m × 2 m for regeneration. A total of 47 tree species belonging to 29 families and 17 regenerating species belonging to 15 families were recorded. The tree stem density, basal area, and wood volume were 0.49 m2/ha, 1425 stem/ha, and 189.9 m3/ha, respectively. Mean regeneration was significantly higher in bottom hill (14374 seedlings/ha) compared to top hill (9671 seedlings/ha). Toona ciliata was highest (4444 seedlings/ha) at the bottom hill compared to other hill positions. The result shows that only 36% of the tree species (17 out of 47) are regenerating in the study area, meaning majority of the tree species (64%) are not getting favorable conditions to regenerate. This might be due to absence of mature tree species as a result of overexploitation by local people. The findings may help in monitoring the species composition changes over time and adopting specific conservation programs for Shitalpur Forest.
Highlights
The total area of Bangladesh is 14,757 million hectares, of which forest lands account for almost 17.5% (2.53 million ha)
The study revealed that the tree basal area was found higher in top hill (0.89 m2/ha) followed by bottom hill (0.36 m2/ha) and middle hill (0.22 m2/ha) with an average basal area of 0.49 m2/ha in the study area
A total of 47 different tree species comprising 29 families were recorded from the study area of which about 62% of the families are represented by only one species, 21% of the families by two species, 14% of the families by three species, and only 3%
Summary
The total area of Bangladesh is 14,757 million hectares, of which forest lands account for almost 17.5% (2.53 million ha). The whole natural forest structure of Bangladesh was negatively changed by both biotic and abiotic disturbances which affect the regeneration and population dynamics [2, 3]. Many forces are responsible for forest degradation, collectively and individually. The trend of these forces is very complex. The major causes of forest degradation in Bangladesh are agricultural expansion, overextraction of wood and nonwood resources, infrastructure development, population growth, deforestation, settlement, urbanization, and inappropriate management practices [4,5,6]. The rapid loss and degradation of forests in Bangladesh have brought about an alarming rate of forest biodiversity depletion [1, 7]
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