Vol. 6 (09) pp. 531-539 DOI: 10.21474/IJAR01/7707

DIVERSITY ANALYSIS OF ANGIOSPERMS IN RIPARIAN SYSTEM ALONG THUPPANAD RIVER, SOUTHERN WESTERN GHATS, KERALA, INDIA.

and
  • Post Graduate and Research Department of Botany, Govt. Victoria College, Palakkad, Kerala, India ? 678001.
51 Downloads 247 Views
Crossref

Download Full Paper (PDF)

Abstract

Thuppanad river is a major tributary of Thutha river that drains into Bharathappuzha, the second largest river in Kerala and is draining out from north of Palghat gap of southern Western Ghats. The present inquiry summarizes the angiosperm diversity along the riparian system of Thuppanad river along with its phytogeographical affinities, percentage endemism, morphological adaptations and biological invasion. The evaluation of the angiosperm diversity revealed the presence of 270 species belonging to 70 families with higher elemental contribution by Euphorbiaceae followed by Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Rubiaceae and Acanthaceae. The riparian flora of this river basin embodies seven characteristic riparian taxa together with fifty six wetland species. Of the taxa recorded, twelve species show an extended distribution in Palakkad district of the state of Kerala. The analysis on endemism revealed that thirty four taxa are endemic to Western Ghats and at the same time, broad scale phytogeographical affinities of the riverine flora extend to African, Australian, Holarctic, Indo-Pacific and South American floristic kingdoms. The altitudinal profiling of the vegetation along the riverine belts revealed higher degree of variation in floristic elements and in the low land belts, human intervention and pollution has resulted in the gradual shift of vegetation elements into alien and invasive ones. The invading taxa in conjunction with anthropogenic disturbances pose serious threats to riparian vegetation of this area. This pioneer study on the riparian elements of this river basin indicated the need for implementing site-specific conservation plan for ecosystem management as this vegetation acts as a buffer zone between the river and cultivable lands.

Keywords

Article Analytics

References

  1. Ahmedullah, M. and Nayar, M. P. (1987): Endemic plants of the Indian Region. 1. Peninsular India. Botanical Survey of India, Calcutta, 261.
  2. Bachan, A. K. H. (2003): Riparian vegetation along the middle and lower zones of the Chalakkudy river, Kerala, India. Project report. Kerala Research programme on Local Level Development, CDS, Thiruvananthapuram.
  3. Barker, J. R., Ringold, P. L., Ballman, M. (2002): Patterns of tree dominance in coniferous riparian forests. Forest ecology and Management, 166 (1-3): 311-329.
  4. Bhaskar, A. and Karthick, N. M. (2015): Riparian forests for healthy rivers. Current Science, 108 (10) : 1788-1789.
  5. nic.in. (2017): Invasive Alien species. http:// www. bsienvis. nic. In /Database/ Invasive_Alien_species_15896. aspx. Accessed 4 Sep. 2017.
  6. Chase, M. W., Christenhusz, M. J. M., Fay, M. F., Byng, J. W., Judd, W. S., Soltis, D. E. and Stevens, P. F. (2016): An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 181 (1): 1-20.
  7. Cook, C. D. K. (1996): Aquatic and Wetland Plants of India, Oxford University press, New York.
  8. Cox, C. B. (2001): The biogeographic regions reconsidered. Journal of Biogeography, 28(4): 511-523.
  9. Illhardt, B. L., Verry, E. S. and Palik, B. J. (2000). "Defining riparian areas." Riparian management in forests of the continental eastern United States. E. S. Very, J. W. Hornbeck, and C. A. Doloff, eds. Lewis Publishers, New York, 23-42.
  10. Singh, A. J. T. and Joshua, J. (1989): The threatened gallery forest of the River Thamirabarani, Mundanthurai Wildlife Sanctuary, South India. Biol Conserv. 47(4): 273?280.
  11. Karthikeyan, S. (1996): Northern Western Ghats and Northern West coast. In: Hajra, P.K., Sharma, B. D., Sanjappa, M. and Sastry, A. R. K. (Eds) Flora of India: Introductory volume. Botanical Survey of India, Calcutta, 375?390.
  12. Kemper, N. P. (1999): RVI: Riparian Vegetation Index. Draft report to the Water Research Commission.WRC Project No. K5/850
  13. Lowe, S., Browne, M., Boudjelas, S. and De Poorter, M. (2000): 100 of the World?s Worst Invasive Alien Species A selection from the Global Invasive Species Database. The Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG): 12
  14. Lowrance, R., Leonard, R., and Sheridan, J. (1985): Managing riparian ecosystems to control non - point pollution. Journal of soil and water conservation, 40(1): 87-91.
  15. Merritt, D.M., Scott, M.L., Poff, N.L., Auble, G.T. and Lytle D.A. (2010): Theory, methods and tools for determining environmental flows for riparian vegetation: riparian vegetation-flow response guilds. Freshwater Biology, 55: 206?225.
  16. Murthy, G. V. S. and Nair, V. J. (2016): The flora of Kerala Vol.2, Botanical survey of India, Kolkata.
  17. Naiman, R. J., and Decamps, H., (1993): The role of riparian vegetation in maintaining regional biodiversity. Ecological applications, 3(2): 209-212.
  18. Naiman R. J. and Decamps, H. (1997): ?The ecology of the interfaces; riparian zones?. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 28:621-658.
  19. Nair, N. C. and Daniel, P. (1986): The floristic diversity of the Western Ghats and its conservation: a review. Proceedings of Indian Academy of Science (Animal/Plant Science) Supplement 3: 127?163.
  20. Nandhakumar, M. K., Ramya, M. K., Shinila, P. and Divyalakshmi, P. (2012): Phytosociological analysis of riparian tree species of Alakyam stream; Pariyaram, Kerala, India. International Journal of Environmental Science, (2) :1896-1903.
  21. Nayar, M. P. (1980): Endemic flora of Peninsular India and its significance. Bulletin of Botanical Survey of India, 22: 12?23.
  22. Parthasarathy, N. (1983): A Phytogeographic analysis of the flora of Kalakad reserve forest WesternGhats. Journal of Indian Botanical Society 67: 342?346.
  23. Paul, J. (2013): Taxonomy distribution and ecology of the riparian flora of Pamba river Kerala.
  24. Raunkiaer, C. (1934): The life forms of plants and statistical plant geography, Clarendon press, Oxford.
  25. Sankhwal, A.O., Shah, S. D., Gavali, D. J., and Dudani, S. N. (2015): Riparian Flora of Mahi River, Gujarat. Biolife, 3 (4): 820-826
  26. Sasidharan, N. (2011): Flowering plants of Kerala. CD Rom. KFRI, Peechi.
  27. Sreedharan, T.P. (2005): A study on the Status of Valapattanam river with special reference to its ecology and socio-cultual aspects, Project report. The Kerala Research Programme on Local level Development, CDS, Thiruvananthapuram
  28. Shah, D.R., Dudani, S.N., Sankhwal, A.O. and Gavali, D.J (2015): Riparian vegetation of Mini River in Vadodara, Gujarat. International journal of environmental sciences, 6(2): 307-317.
  29. Sunil, C., Somashekar, R. K. and Nagaraja, B.C (2010): Riparian vegetation assessment of Cauvery river basin of South India. Environment monitoring Assessment 170: 545-555.
  30. The International Plant name Index (2004): Published on the Internet, https://www.ipni.org, (Accessed on 30-08-18).
  31. The Plant List (2013): Version 1.1. Published on the Internet, http://www.theplantlist.org
  32. (Accessed on 30-08- 2018).
  33. Vincy, M.V., Brilliant, R., Paul, J. and Pradeepkumar, A.P. (2014): Comparison of riparian species diversity between the main river channel and subwatersheds of Meenachil river basin, Kerala, Southern India. Brazilian Journal of Botany 37(4): 323-333.
  34. Vyas, V., Kumar, A., Wani, G. S. and Parashar, V. (2012): Status of Riparian Buffer Zone and floodplain areas of River Narmada, India. International journal of environmental sciences?? 3(1): 659-674.

How to Cite This Article

Kunnamkumarath Jisha and Maya Chandrasekharan Nair. (2018); DIVERSITY ANALYSIS OF ANGIOSPERMS IN RIPARIAN SYSTEM ALONG THUPPANAD RIVER, SOUTHERN WESTERN GHATS, KERALA, INDIA., Int. J. of Adv. Res., 6 (09), 531-539, ISSN 2320-5407. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/7707

Corresponding Author

KUNNAMKUMARATH JISHA
Post Graduate and Research Department of Botany, Govt. Victoria College, Palakkad, Kerala, India – 678001
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.