Dataset 202

Mudumalai Forest Dynamics Plot. India - Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

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Realm: Terrestrial
Climate: Tropical
Biome: Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Central latitude: 11.598900
Central longitude: 76.533800
Duration: 3 years, from 1988 to 2000

225 records

75 distinct species

Across the time series Albizia odoratissima is the most frequently occurring species

Methods

In 1988. a Forest Dynamics Plot was set up in Mudumalai Game Reserve in the eastern foothills of the Western Ghat Mountains of Southern India by the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and STRI. The Mudumalai forest is seasonal semi-evergreen lowland forest. typical of the lowland dry teak forest of the Indian subcontinent. Mudumalai is much less diverse than the other Forest Dynamics Plots surveyed to date. with 76 species and about 26.000 stems. The forest is an open-canopy woodland with grass cover that is subject to nearly annual fires and to browsing by large herds of elephants. A major focus. with significance for forest management practices through much of India. is the impact of fire and elephants on forest regeneration. The plot is recensused every year. although diameter measurements are not taken during every census. Remeasurement censuses have occurred in 1992 and 1997. Unit of abundance = IndCountInt, Unit of biomass = NA

Citation(s)

Sukumar, R. Mudumalai Forest Dynamics Plot Data. Available at: http://www.ctfs.si.edu/site/Mudumalai/, accessed 2013.