TY  - BOOK
AU  - Halliru Bilyaminu 
AU  - Vidyasagaran, K (Guide)
TI  - Phytosociological and edaphic attributes of forest ecosystems of Shendurney wildlife sanctuary, Kollam, Kerala 
U1  - 634.9 
PY  - 2021///
CY  - Vellanikkara 
PB  - Department of Natural Resource Management, College of Forestry 
KW  - Natural Resource Management
KW  - Phytosociological attributes
KW  - Edaphic attributes
KW  - Shendurney wildlife sanctuary
KW  - Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA)
N1  - PhD
N2  - The present study was carried out with the primary objective of studying the tree 
species diversity, structure, and composition, physicochemical attributes and land use 
and land cover change of forest ecosystems of Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary, Kollam, 
Kerala viz., west coast tropical evergreen, west coast tropical semi-evergreen, southern 
secondary moist deciduous, myristica swamp, and tropical hilltop forest. The stratified 
random sampling approach was adopted for vegetation assessment with a sampling plot 
of 20 m × 20 m. The regeneration pattern of the tree species was studied from the plots 
of 5 m × 5 m for the tree saplings and 1 m × 1 m for the tree seedlings from each of the 
20 m × 20m plots. The soil sample was collected horizon-wise up to 1 m from each of 
the forest ecosystems. The land use and land cover was studied using the supervised 
classification with Maximum Likelihood Algorithm and change detection comparison 
approach using the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM±) and Landsat 8 OLITIRS using the data capture on July 01, 2001, and January 14, 2018. 
A total of 119 species with a density of 1053.50 ha-1
and 50.04 m2 ha-1 basal area 
were recorded from the west coast tropical evergreen, 101 species with the density of 
914.55 ha-1 with the basal area of 41.64 m2 ha-1 basal area from west coast semievergreen, 58 species with a density of 876.97 ha-1 with the basal area of 26.88 m2 ha-1
from the moist deciduous, 33 species with a density of 1144.44 ha-1
 and the basal area 
of 33.93 m2 ha-1
from the myristica swamp, and 44 species with a density of 619 ha-1
and basal area of 16.93 m2 ha-1
from the tropical hilltop forest, respectively. The girth 
class distribution of the forest ecosystems varies significantly, with the west coast 
tropical evergreen forest showed the reversed J-shaped distribution. And a completely 
L-shaped pattern for the west coast semi-evergreen and southern secondary moist 
deciduous forest, whereas inverted iJ-shape in the tropical hilltop forest. The percent 
species endemism of 85.44% was recorded in the myristica swamp forest, 79.15% for 
the tropical hilltop forest, 55.58% for the west coast tropical evergreen forest, 40.71% 
for west coast tropical semi-evergreen forest, and the lowest (29.26%) for the moist 
deciduous forest.
The dominant families in the west coast tropical evergreen forest are 
Dipterocarpaceae (FIV=24.92), Clusiaceae (FIV=21.40), and Myrtaceae (FIV=20.78). 
The families Euphorbiaceae (FIV=31.68), Dipterocarpaceae (FIV=24.18), and 
Rubiaceae (FIV=18.99) were dominant for the west coast semi-evergreen forest. In the 
Moist deciduous forest, the dominant families are Euphorbiaceae (FIV=52.99), 
Combretaceae (FIV=41.23), and Malvaceae (31.73). For the myristica swamp forest, 
the families Myristicaceae (FIV=149.01), Dipterocarpaceae (FIV=41.08), and 
Anacardiaceae (FIV=25.86) are dominant. The families Lauraceae (FIV=69.92) and 
Clusiaceae (FIV=35.71) are dominant in the tropical hilltop forest.
The Shannon-Weiner and Simpson indices were found at 4.10 and 0.97 for west 
coast tropical evergreen, 4.09 and 0.97 for west coast semi-evergreen, 3.22 and 0.92 for 
the Southern secondary moist deciduous, 3.88 and 0.95. The lowest value (2.70 and 
088) was reported for the myristica swamp forest. The diversity indices of west coast 
evergreen and west coast semi-evergreen showed no significant variation. The Margalef 
value was reported higher for the evergreen forest. Moreover, this study found that most 
tree species showed a contagious distribution pattern for a tree, saplings, and seedling 
levels, with very few showing the uniform distribution pattern of distribution. 
The tree species regeneration was adequate for most forest ecosystems, with the 
highest density (3,582 ha-1
saplings and 27,777 ha-1
seedlings) recorded in the west 
coast tropical evergreen forest. However, most dominant species showed relatively 
good regeneration, especially in the west coast tropical evergreen and west coast 
tropical semi-evergreen forests. The diversity indices of the regenerating seedlings and 
saplings do not vary significantly across all the forest ecosystems.
 Across the forest ecosystems, the soil is slightly acidic with a moderate amount 
of soil organic carbon. The soil percent organic carbon, Cation Exchange Capacity, and 
electrical conductivity are relatively higher in the first horizon and showed decreasing 
trend across all the forest ecosystems. The bulk density showed low in the first horizon 
and increased with depth ecosystems. The higher bulk density was recorded for the 
Myristica swamp forest.
The land use and land cover analysis indicated a rigorous land cover change in 
the forest ecosystems. It showed a significant increase in the proportion of degraded 
forest from 21.31% in 2001 to 22.97% in 2018. Substantial loss in the moist deciduous 
forest from 27.11 % in 2001 to 17.23 % in 2018 and semi-evergreen forest from 26.91 
% in 2001 to 18.98 % in 2018 was reported. Anthropogenic activities such as pressure 
on land for agriculture, expansion of human settlements, forest fire, and plantation 
establishment were found to be the major factors that led to the drastic changes in the 
land cover of forest ecosystems of Shendurney Wildlife sanctuary
UR  - https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810186294
ER  -