Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

Vol.10, Issue 04, 2004; Page No.(479-486)

VEGETATION DIVERSITY AND SPATIAL SOIL VARIABILITY IN DIFFERENT ECOSYSTEMS IN TEAK-SAL TRANSITION ZONE

R.B. Singh, Akhilesh Argal and S.K. Banerjee

Abstract

The vegetation diversity and spatial variability of soil in five ecosystems at Teak-Sal transition zone, Chilpi (Chhattisgarh) was studied. Man-made forests in ecosystem (I, Ili and IV) are rich in nutrients as compared to natural forests, except available N in natural sal forest. Production of more organic carbon in I 987 plantation sal (ecosystem I) was probably responsible for lowering of soil pH and dissolution of exchangeable calcium resulting in low CEC and their leaching.Variability of soil pH and organic carbon in perpendicular transects (North-South and East-West) do not show any uniformity in directional variability.The higher coefficient variance values indicate more variability at ecosystem III due to greater heterogeneity. Phyto-sociological parameters show that among all sites, plantation sal (ecosystem 1) has maximum IVI (177.15) value.The diversity index (H-), Evenness index (e) and Richness index (d) calculated is highest (with the lowest "cd") at ecosystem V. The highest values of "cd" on ecosystem I (with the lowest (Fr) may be due to less number of associated trees with Shorea robusta.Thus there is considerable variation in community composition.

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