Assessment of the Floristic Composition of a Scrub Forest Ecosystem in Kalbetta State Forest, Karnataka, India

Abstract

Tropical forests being the most diverse plant communities are disappearing at alarming rates owing to deforestation by its conversion to other land uses, excess extraction of its products and forest fires. These disturbances also result in fragmentation due to which these ecosystems often do not get time to recover adequately. The analysis of tropical forest ecosystems in terms of their constituent units and the detailed inventories of vegetation, habitats and biodiversity is the need of forest managers, conservationists and ecologists.

Kalbetta state forest is a small chunk of scrub forest in the Mysuru district of Karnataka, India. It has always been under pressure of encroachment and meeting needs of local people for timber, fuel wood etc. The study of floristic biodiversity of this area from the ecological perspective is a step in providing the authentic information on the existing biodiversity which would help in the management and conservation of this forest. The present study of floristic biodiversity assessment revealed 398 species belonging to Angiosperms (380), Pteridophytes (1), Bryophytes (2), Lichens (13) and Fungi (2). Among the angiosperms, Dicots constituted 240 Species belonging to 167 genera and 63 families whereas Monocots are poorly represented constituting 39 species belonging to 35 genera and 8 families. Overall ratio between Genera to species was recorded at 1:1.41and the Generic co-coefficient for the area was found to be 71.10 %.