Recovery of plant diversity and soil nutrients during stand development in subtropical forests of Mizoram, Northeast India

Abstract

Singh ShB, Mishra BP, Tripathi SK. 2015. Recovery of plant diversity and soil nutrients during stand development in
subtropical forests of Mizoram, Northeast India. Biodiversitas 16: 205-212. The present study assessed the recovery of tree species
diversity and soil nutrient dynamics with stand development in subtropical semi-evergreen forest of Mizoram. The study was carried out
in two regenerating forest stands following disturbance and one undisturbed forest. Schima wallichii was the dominant species in all
stands showing IVI of 63.8, 83.3 and 75.9 in undisturbed, moderately disturbed and highly disturbed stands, respectively. Castanopsis
tribuloides was co-dominant species in the undisturbed and the moderately disturbed but this species was replaced by Sterculia villosa in
the highly disturbed stand. The shift in position of species and families from undisturbed to highly disturbed stands could be linked with
degree of disturbance. Log-normal dominance-distribution curves in the undisturbed and moderately disturbed stand indicating the
stability of community, while short hooked curve in the highly disturbed stand indicates unstable nature of the community. The soil
properties (organic C, total nitrogen, and available phosphorus) increased significantly during the course of stand development, whereas,
decrease with the depth in these forest stands.