Similar results were also reported by Verma and Jayakumar ( 2015) who studied the effect of fire frequencies on tropical dry deciduous forest in MTR.
( 2004, 2008, and 2009) studied fire history, fire return interval, ecological impact of fire, and conservation threats of forest fire in the Western Ghats from 1989 to 2005 with changing fire regime, and they found that species diversity and regeneration initially increases in low fire frequencies and then start decreasing. ( 2015) studied the spatial and temporal pattern of forest fire in MTR. ( 2014) mapped fire-risk areas in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) and Mondal and Sukumar ( 2014) studied characteristic weather pattern associated with fire. Few researchers have tried to study forest fire in the Western Ghats, for example, Srivastava et al. There are very limited studies in India on ecological dynamics of tropical deciduous forests after fire (Kodandapani et al. Only a few studies have addressed the ecological perspective of a forest fire. In India, studies on forest fire are majorly focused on monitoring and management of forest fire. Maximum forest fires in India have been reported in tropical dry deciduous followed by tropical moist deciduous forest and tropical semi-evergreen forest (FSI 2012). Tropical dry deciduous forests are more vulnerable to forest fire than any other forest across the world (Janzen 1988, Murphy and Lugo 1986). Studies suggest that 90% of vegetation fires in India may be man-made, and annually about 3.73 million ha of forest areas are affected by forest fires (Srivastava and Garg 2013). Forest fires are widespread phenomena in Indian forests. But most of these studies were conducted in the temperate regions. Several studies have been conducted across the globe in the last few decades to understand the effect of fires on vegetation, soil properties, and biomass (Verma and Jayakumar 2012, Whelan 1995).
Fires firmly promote few fire-tolerant species that can replace the naturally growing species in an undisturbed environment. The ecological significance of these recurrent fires on forest establishment is important. In tropical dry deciduous forests, where fires are very frequent, plants display some adaptive traits like thick bark, the capability of healing fire scars, seed adaptations, and re-sprouting capability (Khan and Tripathi 1986, 1989). Forest regeneration has been affected by fire through killing stem tissues of seedlings and saplings and heating the soil sufficiently to kill roots and seeds near the soil surface (Balch et al. Forest fires affect vegetation by suppressing certain species and encouraging other species causing changes in vegetation structure and successional pattern (Syaufina and Nuruddin 2011). 2003) by influencing different aspects of growth and development, like flowering, seed dispersal, germination, seedling establishment, and plant mortality (De Luis et al. Forest fires strongly affect the species composition of plant communities (Danthu et al. The overall fire affected diversity, but regeneration showed a positive trend.įire is a significant ecological event that can produce variable effects (Keane et al. Seedling density increased linearly in subsequent years after fire but sapling and tree density recorded less than control in B2 but was higher in B5 and B15. Stems of small size classes started increasing after the fire. Tree diversity decreased in 2-year-old and 5-year-old burnt plots and was reached to the level of unburnt plots in 15 years of interval.
Totally, 40 tree species were recorded in study plots, from which 28 species were seedlings, 16 species were saplings, and 37 species were at tree stages. ResultsĪ total of 4129 individuals of tree species were recorded in field surveys, comprising 3474 seedlings, 121 saplings, and 534 trees. Three 0.1 ha square plots were laid randomly in all four patches and analyzed for tree diversity, stand structure, and regeneration of tree species. Four forest patches were selected which were unburned, 2-year-old burn, 5-year-old burn, and 15-year-old burn. The study was conducted in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, in the Western Ghats to understand the effect of a single fire event on tree diversity and regeneration status.
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