• ISSN: 0972-8546
  • |
  • NAAS Rating (Scientific Journals): 3.63

Plant Science Research, Vol. 36 2014, Pages : 34-42

V. P. Upadhyay, T. Yagasaki and S. Okuda

Application of quantitative approach on the analysis of oak-mixed forests in India and Japan

The present study was carried out to analyze the vegetation of Shikinomori Park Protected Forest, Japan and to find out the species composition and vegetation structure. A total of 14 tree species, 24 shrub species and 60 herb species were recorded in the forest under study. The families Liliaceae and Poaceae were best represented in the forest followed by Araliaceae, Lauraceae and Dryopteridaceae. Random distribution was most common in all the three vegetation layers. However, Prunus grayana exhibited weak regular distribution and Fatsia japonica, Aucuba japonica and Pleioblastus chino exhibited contiguous distribution. There appeared contiguous distribution among seedlings of Quercus serrata and random distribution among seedlings of Q. myrsinaefolia. There is no definite pattern of frequency distribution conforming to Raunkiaer’s Law of Frequency. However, most of the species have fallen in class B for trees and herb layers and class D for shrub layer. A comparison of Oak forests of Central Himalayan region with the present Shikinomori Protected Forest indicates that in both the ecosystems the Oak species accounted for more than 30% of the IVI. Further, at genus level, some common plants are represented in both the forests. The study establishes the highly diverse habitat of Shikinomori Protected Forest is a rich gene pool of biodiversity.



Full Text PDF