The Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest of Tamil Nadu: Temple Groves, Evergreenness and Spatial Variation

Hunneyball, Gemma (2003) The Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest of Tamil Nadu: Temple Groves, Evergreenness and Spatial Variation. Project Report. Aurogreen. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Woody and climbing species were inventoried at 60 tropical dry evergreen forest sites (43 temple groves, 9 Reserve Forests, 7 charnockite hillocks and one unclassified site) in northern coastal Tamil Nadu. The vegetation in Reserve Forests and hillocks was similar, while the temple groves showed greater variation and were dissimilar from the Reserve Forest/hillock formation. The most common species in temple groves were more evergreen and arborescent than those of Reserve Forests/hillocks, and contained a consistently greater proportion of evergreen species (48.15 - 84.50% compared to 45.95 –67.65%). The predominence of evergreen species and relative infrequency of deciduous species in all sites justifies the previously disputed classification of this vegetation as ‘evergreen’. The contrasting nature and wide geographical range of the temple groves illustrates the importance of their inclusion in any classification of the regional vegetation formations. A further examination of the species composition of the temple groves found considerable variation connected to geographical location, enabling a description of some broad trends of species distributions. Further studies are recommended to examine the causes of the differences between temple groves and Reserve Forests, and the nature and causes of the variation between the temple groves.

Item Type:	Monograph (Project Report)
Subjects:	Forestry > Forestry (General)
Depositing User:	Admin User
Date Deposited:	27 May 2021 12:41
Last Modified:	27 May 2021 12:41
URI:	http://aurorepo.in/id/eprint/215

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