Riparian vegetation assessment of Cauvery River Basin of South India

• Published in: Environmental monitoring and assessment 2010-11, Vol.170 (1-4), p.545-553
• Main Authors: Sunil, C, Somashekar, R. K, Nagaraja, B. C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural ecosystems; Agriculture; agroecosystems; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; anthropogenic activities; Anthropogenic factors; Applied ecology; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; basal area; Biodiversity; Biological and medical sciences; Cauvery river; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Deforestation; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecosystem structure; Ecosystems; Ecotoxicology; Environment; environmental impact; Environmental Management; Environmental Monitoring; Forests; Freshwater; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; grazing; Habitats; India; landscapes; mining; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Natural resources; Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking; Plant Development; Plant species; Plants - classification; Population growth; Riparian; Riparian forests; Riparian vegetation; River basins; River ecology; Rivers; sand; Sand & gravel; Shannon-Weiner diversity; Species composition; species diversity; Species similarity; stand density; Studies; Tourism; trees; Vegetation; Water Pollution - analysis; Water Pollution - statistics & numerical data; watersheds; Wildlife sanctuaries
• ISSN: 0167-6369; 1573-2959
• DOI: 10.1007/s10661-009-1256-3

The Cauvery river basin of South India has a large phyto-floristic wealth, rightfully enough to constitute a separate phyto-geographic unit. Increase in the anthropogenic pressures within the river basin and surrounding landscapes have persistently stressed the riparian ecosystem structure adversely, besides altering its composition. The objective of this study was to examine the present status of riparian vegetation along the Cauvery river basin, in response to anthropogenic pressures. For vegetation analysis, the riparian forest coming in the middle stretch of Cauvery river was categorized into two zones, viz., forest zone covering ~54 km stretch and agroecosystem zone covering ~80 km stretch. In each zone, tree species were quantified using transects at 8-km interval. Overall tree species accounting for both forest and agroecosystem were recorded and compared. The results indicate that the mean density and basal area of trees per plot were higher in the forest zone than agroecosystem zone. The Shannon-Weiner diversity of forest zone is 4.6, which is higher than agroecosystem. In addition, species composition indicated a relatively low or poor similarity between the two zones. The vegetation density and site disturbance scores for all the study sites reveals that sand mining and grazing areas have exerted negative impact on riparian forest. The results of the present study clearly brought out the need for preparing and implementing site-specific conservation plans for riparian ecosystem.