Browsing by Author "Prabhakar, N."

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    Influence of Canopy Gaps on Mangrove vegetation and Crab communities in the Andaman Islands
    (Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 2025) Sengannan, Perarivalan; Prabhakar, N.
    Small-scale, infrequent disturbances enhance habitat heterogeneity in the landscape and promote diversity. Canopy disturbances caused by lightning strikes in mature mangrove stands modify environmental factors such as canopy cover and light intensity. Response of mangrove vegetation and crab communities to such canopy gap formation remains the least investigated aspect among ecologists. The canopy gaps were stratified based on the recent and recovering status of vegetation recruitment along with gap age, and an intact forest plot was sampled as a control treatment. The result shows that canopy opening has a significant effect on water temperature, and it has a profound influence on structuring vegetation and the crab communities in mangroves. Seedling and sapling density was 2-fold higher in canopy gaps than intact forest, and higher sapling survival was witnessed in canopy gaps. 28 species of crabs were recorded collectively from all treatments. Crabs of the family Ocypodidae were found in large proportion in canopy gaps, as the organic matter from microalgae and bacteria is their primary food base. Overall, canopy gaps in contiguous mangrove habitats are a hot spot for crab diversity and serve as a regeneration niche for seedlings and saplings by creating structural heterogeneity in the landscape. It suggests that small-scale natural disturbances, such as canopy gaps, promote habitat complexity and crab diversity.
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    Natural recovery of tsunami impacted littoral and mangrove forests in Nicobar Islands, India
    (SACON, 2012) Prabhakar, N.; Balasubramanian, P.
    Tropical forests are one among the species rich biome on earth. The high species diversity and complexity in its functionality makes this forest type as the most resilient ecosystem. The ever increasing anthropogenic pressures and natural -calamities are placing tropical forest at a high risk in the recent time. Due to high levels of disturbance, most of the tropical forests of today are in various stages of succession. Natural disturbances such as flood. forest fire, land slide and hurricane are known to cause long lasting impacts on a large scale in tropical forests. Tsunami perhaps could be the new addition to the above list. The natural recovery of vegetation after large scale disturbances are influenced by many ecological and environmental factors. Hence, understanding the vegetation recovery pattern and the influencing factors are important in planning and implementing habitat restoration programme.