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Proceedings of the International Academy of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, 2022, 12(1): 44-53
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Article

Distribution and population structure of Pterocarpus santalinus (Red sanders) in hill ranges of Kadapa region, Southern Eastern Ghats, India

C. Ankalaiah, M. Sridhar Reddy
Yogi Vemana University, Department of Environmental Science, Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, 516005 India

Received 17 December 2021;Accepted 2 January 2022;Published 1 March 2022
IAEES

Abstract
The present study involves the inventory of the four growth stages, seedling, sapling, juvenile trees and trees of Red sanders in tropical dry deciduous forests in hill ranges of Kadapa region. A total of 20 (1 ha) study sites were laid and in each of the study site, a total of ten (10กม100 m) belt transacts were randomly laid to enumerate the growth stages. The objective is to derive quantitative information about the population of Red sanders in its natural occurrence area. Results indicated that seedlings are the dominant growth-form across the hill ranges and juvenile trees showed high variation in their distribution. The suffrutex stage, justified by the presence of multiple stems; among seedlings and saplings seems to play a major role in Red sanders regeneration success to overcome the prevailing drought, hot weather conditions and fire. The general population structure in reference to four growth stages of Red sanders was: seedlings > saplings > juvenile trees < Adult trees. Although inverse J shape population structure was recorded for the whole study area, variations in population structure profiles were noticed at one ha level. The occurrence of Red sanders abundance along the elevation revealed that lower elevation sites featured lower tree density and it reached maximum at 400-600 m and decreased later till 600-900 m. Overall Red sanders can be ranked as the dominant trees in these forests, but the progression of sapling stage to established stage like juvenile tree and trees is the bottleneck in the progression of population of Red sanders rather than the seedling germination and survival rates.

Keywords dry deciduous forests;population structure;red sanders;regeneration.



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