Rainforests north of the Tropic of Cancer: Physiognomy, floristics and diversity in ‘lowland rainforests’ of Meghalaya, India

Uma Shankar; Amit Kumar Tripathi

doi:10.1016/j.pld.2016.10.003

2017 , Vol. 39 >Issue 01: 20 - 36

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2016.10.003

Articles

Rainforests north of the Tropic of Cancer: Physiognomy, floristics and diversity in ‘lowland rainforests’ of Meghalaya, India

Uma Shankar ,
Amit Kumar Tripathi

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Department of Botany, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong 793 022, India

Received date: 2016-07-06

Revised date: 2016-10-14

Online published: 2021-11-05

Supported by

The Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi provided principal funding through a grant to US (BT/PR7928/NDB/52/9/2006). AKT received a fellowship from the DBT project and from UGC's meritorious fellowship programme. The authors are grateful to Prof. K.N. Ganeshaiah, UAS, Bengaluru, for encouragement, the custodians of forests in Meghalaya for permission, the Botanical Survey of India, Shillong for access to herbarium, and the Head, Department of Botany, NEHU for logistics. The help rendered by K. Nongrum, D. Kumar, S. Borah and Mrs. Shilpi Agrawal is thankfully acknowledged. AKT led the field work. US developed test hypotheses and study design, reviewed literature, analyzed data and carried out manuscript writing. US is studying phytosociology and regeneration of forest ecosystems in northeastern India under the doctor of science programme at the North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. US dedicates this paper to Professor Duncan Poore who revealed quantitative facts of the dipterocarpus lowland rainforests of Malaya as early as in 1960s and worked for their conservation until he breathed his last in March, 2016 when this paper was being written (http://www.itto.int/news_releases/id=4777). The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Abstract

The lowland rainforests of Meghalaya, India represent the westernmost limit of the rainforests north of the Tropic of Cancer. These forests, on the Shillong plateau, are akin to Whitmore's ‘tropical lowland evergreen rainforest’ formation and exhibit striking similarities and conspicuous differences with the equatorial rainforests in Asia-Pacific as well as tropical seasonal rainforests in southwestern China near the Tropic of Cancer. We found these common attributes of the rainforests in Meghalaya: familial composition with predominance of Euphorbiaceae, Lauraceae, Meliaceae, Moraceae, Myrsiticaceae, Myrtaceae and Rubiaceae; deciduousness in evergreen physiognomy; dominance of mega- and mesophanerophytic life-forms; abundance of species with low frequency of occurrence (rare and aggregated species); low proportional abundance of the abundant species; and truncated lognormal abundance distribution. The levels of stand density and stand basal area were comparable with seasonal rainforests in southwestern China, but were lower than equatorial rainforests. Tropical Asian species predominated flora, commanding 95% of the abundance. The differences include overall low stature (height) of the forest, inconspicuous stratification in canopy, fewer species and individuals of liana, thicker understory, higher proportion of rare species, absence of locally endemic species and relatively greater dominance of Fagaceae and Theaceae. The richness of species per hectare (S) was considerably lower at higher latitudes in Meghalaya than in equatorial rainforests, but was comparable with seasonal rainforests. Shannon's diversity index (H' = 4.40 nats for ≥10 cm gbh and 4.25 nats for ≥30 cm gbh) was lower on higher latitudes in Meghalaya in comparison to species-rich equatorial rainforests, but it was the highest among all lowland rainforests near the Tropic of Cancer.

Key words： Lowland rainforest; Forest structure; Floristics; Phytosociology; Species richness; Life-form spectrum

Cite this article

Uma Shankar , Amit Kumar Tripathi . Rainforests north of the Tropic of Cancer: Physiognomy, floristics and diversity in ‘lowland rainforests’ of Meghalaya, India[J]. Plant Diversity, 2017 , 39(01) : 20 -36 . DOI: 10.1016/j.pld.2016.10.003

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