Journal of Global Ecology and Environment

Aims: Quantitative field study was conducted to assess forest regeneration status in ten tropical dry evergreen forest (TDEF) sites at southern Coromandel Coast.

Study Design:  Quantitative field survey.

Place and Duration of Study: Tamil Nadu, One year

Methodology: Forest regeneration study was conducted in ten tropical dry evergreen forest sites located on the southern Coromandel Coast. A twenty 10 m × 10 m (100 m²; 0.01 ha) square plots were randomly laid in all forest sites. All encountered plants were identified to species level in the field. Individuals up to the height <20 cm were considered as seedlings, whereas the height classes 20.1-40 cm, 40.1-100 cm, and 100.1-<10 girth at breast height (gbh) cm were considered as saplings. Height class classification followed Induchoodan (1993). Regeneration status of species was identified with density of seedlings, saplings, and adult plants. Five regeneration categories were recognized as in Shankar (2001): 1. Good regeneration: Seedlings > saplings> adults; 2. Fair regeneration: Seedlings > saplings ≥ adults; 3. Poor regeneration: (i) Species survives only as saplings but not as seedlings; (ii) Seedlings < saplings < adults; 4. No regeneration: Species absent both in seedlings and saplings but present as adults; and, 5. New regeneration: Species present only in seedlings or saplings but not as adult trees

Results: A total of 51640 seedlings were recorded from ten study sites. Seedling density varied from 1970 to 9050 ha^-1. On an average each site had 5163 ± 2507 seedlings ha^-1. A sum of 38130 saplings was encountered. Sapling density ha^-1 ranged from 1560 to 7670 plants ha^-1, while the mean sapling density was recorded as 3813 ± 1954 plants ha^-1. Species richness of young plants ha^-1 varied from 25 to 33 in study area. The mean species richness of the study area was 28.5 ± 3.20 species ha^-1. On average, each mature individual had 11.84 ± 2.94 young plants in the study area. Young-mature plant ratios differed from 7.27 to 14.78. The proportion of species showing good, fair, poor and no regeneration varied considerably among study sites. The present investigation recorded a net loss of 3.11 to 43.78% of seedlings during the seedling-sapling transition stage, and a further loss of 66.44 to 84.4% of saplings in the developmental phase from saplings to trees. The seedling survival rate ranged from 5.61 to 12.10%.

Conclusion: The mean young plant density, diversity, and species richness obtained in the recent study are comparable with those of the world’s tropical forests.