DIVERSITY OF HERBACEOUS LAYER IN TROPICAL DRY DECIDUOUS FOREST: EFFECTS OF ANTHROPOGENIC DISTURBANCEY. Verma, L. Singh and G. SharmaAbstract The present paper describes the effects of disturbance on the diversity of herbaceous layer along the disturbance gradient, viz., least disturbed, moderately disturbed and highly disturbed forest sites in the Katghora forest division of Chhattisgarh, India. The herbaceous layer was measured in 1 ha representative plots by randomly placing ten quadrats of 50 cm x 50 cm in size on each site. The density and diversity of herbaceous species were highest in moderately disturbed forests. The diversity at least disturbed forest sites was 70%, and at highly disturbed forest sites was 90% of moderately disturbed forest site. Similarly, the density at least disturbed forests was only 33%, and in the highly disturbed forest, 42% of moderately disturbed forest area. The study indicated that the density and diversity increase initially in response to human influence but rapidly decline when interference levels increase. |