Research Article | Published: 01 March 2005

Community Characteristics and Soil Biological Processes during Regrowth of Subtropical Forest Ecosystems

A. Arunachalam and K. Arunachalam

Indian Journal of Forestry | Volume: 28 | Issue: 1 | Page No. 5-10 | 2005
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54207/bsmps1000-2005-Z43L3M | Cite this article

Abstract

The loss of species following disturbances may reduce the resilience of ecosystems to stress. It is thus understood that diversity of plant species may affect the functional processes in a disturbed ecosystem. This paper reports on the biomass accumulation patterns in litter, roots, and microbial biomass across changing community characteristics along a successional gradient in a regrowing broadleaved forest following felling and in a pine forest on abandoned agricultural lands in a subtropical environment of north-eastern India. The species diversity index had a linear relationship with litter, fine roots and microbial biomass accumulation in the broadleaved forest regrowths, while density and basal area of pine trees were negatively correlated to these functional processes. Over all, there were significant positive correlations among litter, fine roots and microbial biomass. These results suggest that woody vegetation characteristics could be an index to explain the biomass dynamics of the three soil biological processes that increased during community development following disturbances. Species evenness index had no relationships with the biological processes. Nevertheless, the usage of community characteristics as an index of biological processes could be ecosystem specific in general and type of successional vegetation in particular.

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How to cite

Arunachalam, A. and Arunachalam, K., 2005. Community Characteristics and Soil Biological Processes during Regrowth of Subtropical Forest Ecosystems. Indian Journal of Forestry, 28(1), pp.5-10. https://doi.org/10.54207/bsmps1000-2005-Z43L3M

Publication History

Manuscript Published on 01 March 2005

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