C. S. Reddy

Assessing forest canopy closure in a geospatial medium to address management concerns for tropical islands - Southeast Asia.

The present study outlines an approach to classify forest density and to estimate canopy closure of the forest of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. The vector layers generated for the study area using satellite data was validated with the field knowledge of the surveyed ground control points. The methodology adopted in this present analysis is three-tiered. First, the density stratification into five zones using visual interpretation for the complete archipelago. In the second step, we identified two island groups from the Andaman to investigate and compare the forest strata density. The third and final step involved more of a localised phytosociological module that focused on the North Andaman Islands. The results based on the analysis of the high-resolution satellite data show that more than 75% of the mangroves are under high- to very high-density canopy class. The framework developed would serve as a significant measure to forest health and evaluate management concerns whilst addressing issues such as gap identification, conservation prioritisation and disaster management—principally to the post-tsunami assessment and analysis.

Angiosperms of North Andaman, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

The present paper focus on the phytosociological survey carried out in North Andaman part of Andaman and Nicobar islands and enlists the plant species with their habit and forest types they belong. The study area showed five important forest types viz., evergreen, semi-evergreen, moist deciduous, mangroves and littoral. The survey in these islands encountered 241 tree species, 119 climbers, 45 shrubs and 49 herbs from 62, 41, 24 and 23 families respectively from a sample of 203 quadrats of 0.1 ha size. Euphorbiaceae is found to be dominant family represented by 34 species belong to 21 genera. The result of the survey indicates the potential species richness of the study site that encompasses a vivid biodiversity. It also provides a data base on North Andaman plant species which can be utilized in the context of species conservation and future inventories.

Tree Wealth of Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh, India: An updated checklist

A checklist of all indigenous and naturalized trees of Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh State, India was made. There are as many as 510 taxa (73 families, 252 genera) in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh State which here enumerated under family names alphabetically. The nomenclature of the taxa is updated. The popular name, trade name, tree height, vegetation type, and district-wise distribution to each taxon are provided in tabular form. Country of origin / nativity was provided for exotic species. Of the total 510 indigenous/naturalised species, 40% are distributed in a wide variety of vegetation types.