Geography

1. GEOGRAPHY Chapter 5- Natural Vegetation And Wildlife By Abbas Sultan, Raza Amaan

2. Before We Start, I Would Like You To Know What Is Actually Meant By Natural Vegetation. Natural vegetation means any plants or trees that grow on their own ‘naturally’ without any form of human intervention.  Certain type of plants of trees have a natural place of origin or habitat, and before humans began to harvest vegetation and cut down trees, this type of vegetation would grow naturally with chemicals such as pesticide, to manipulate its growth . out any form of man-made

3. TROPICAL DECIDUOUS FORESTS Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe. In a more specific sense, deciduous means the dropping of a part that is no longer needed, or falling away after its purpose is finished. In plants it is the result of natural processes. Deciduous has a similar meaning when referring to animal parts, such as deciduous antlers in deer, or deciduous teeth, also known as baby teeth, in some mammals (including human children ).

4. A Deciduous Forest In Autumn   When autumn arrives and the days are shorter or when plants are drought-stressed, deciduous trees decrease chlorophyll pigment production, allowing other pigments present in the leaf to become apparent, resulting in non-green colored foliage. The brightest leaf colors are produced when days grow short and nights are cool, but remain above freezing. These other pigments include carotenoids that are yellow, brown, and orange.

5. A Deciduous Forest In Winter The absence of leaves improves wind transmission of pollen for wind-pollinated plants and increases the visibility of the flowers to insects in insect-pollinated plants. This strategy is not without risks, as the flowers can be damaged by frost or, in dry season regions, result in water stress on the plant. Nevertheless, there is much less branch and trunk breakage from glaze ice storms when leafless, and plants can reduce water loss due to the reduction in availability of liquid water during cold winter days.

6. Mixed Deciduous Forest In Spring Before the leaves die, some of the food material they contain is drawn back into the twigs and branches where it is stored and used in the following spring. The warmer temperatures of SPRING signal to the trees that they can grow new leaves again, and restart the cycle.

7. A Map Of Natural Vegetation In India

8. Deciduous Woody Plants The deciduous characteristic has developed repeatedly among woody plants. Trees include Maple, many Oaks, Elm, Aspen, and Birch, among others, as well as a number of coniferous genera, such as Larch and Met sequoia. Deciduous shrubs include honeysuckle, viburnum, and many others. Most temperate woody vines are also deciduous, including grapes, poison ivy, Virginia, creeper, wisteria, etc. The characteristic is useful in plant identification; for instance in parts of Southern California and the American Southeast, deciduous and evergreen oak species may grow side by side.

9. Temperature Deciduous Forest Temperate deciduous forest  biomes are plant communities distributed in North and South America, Asia and Europe. They have formed under climatic conditions which have great seasonable temperature variability with growth occurring during warm summers and leaf drop in autumn and dormancy during cold winters. These seasonally distinctive communities have diverse life forms that are impacted greatly by the seasonality of their climate, mainly temperature and precipitation rates. These varying and regionally different ecological conditions produce distinctive forest plant communities in different regions.

10. Tropical and subtropical deciduous forest. The  tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest  biome, also known as  tropical dry forest , is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive several hundred centimeters of rain per year, they have long dry seasons which last several months and vary with geographic location. These seasonal droughts have great impact on all living things in the forest.

11. Tropical Ever-Green Forests Tropical evergreen forests are usually found in areas receiving more than 200 cm of rainfall and having a temperature of 15 °C to 30 °C. They occupy about seven per cent of the Earth's land surface and harbour more than half of the world’s plants and animals . In India, evergreen forests are found on the western slopes of the Western Ghats in States such as Maharashtra , Kerala and Karnataka. And also found in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. They are also found in the hills of Jaintia and Khasi. Some of the trees found in Indian Tropical Forests are rosewood, mahogany and ebony. Bamboo and reeds are also common.

12. Mangrove Forests Mangroves  are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between  latitudes  25° N and 25° S. The remaining mangrove forest areas of the world in 2000 was 53,190 square miles (137, 760 km²) spanning to 118 countries and territories The word is used in at least three senses: most broadly to refer to the habitat and entire plant assemblage or  mangal for which the terms  mangrove forest biome,   mangrove swamp  and  mangrove forest  are also used, to refer to all trees and large shrubs in the mangrove swamp, and narrowly to refer to the mangrove  family  of plants, the Rhizophoraceae, or even more specifically just to mangrove trees of the genus  Rhizophora.

13. Ecology Of The Mangrove Forests. Mangrove "swamps" are found in tropical and subtropical tidal areas. Areas where mangal occur include estuaries and marine shorelines. The intertidal existence to which these trees are adapted represents the major limitation to the number of species able to thrive in their habitat. High tide brings in salt water, and when the tide recedes, solar evaporation of the seawater in the soil leads to further increases in salinity. The return of tide can flush out these soils, bringing them back to salinity levels comparable to that of seawater. At low tide, organisms are also exposed to increases in temperature and desiccation, and are then cooled and flooded by the tide. Thus, in order for a plant to survive in this environment, it must tolerate broad ranges of salinity, temperature, and moisture, as well as a number of other key environmental factors. It is unsurprising, perhaps, that only a select few species make up the mangrove tree community.

14. About 110 species are considered "mangroves", in the sense of being a tree that grows in such a saline swamp, though only a few are from the mangrove plant genus,  Rhizophora . However, a given mangrove swamp typically features only a small number of tree species. It is not uncommon for a mangrove forest in the Caribbean to feature only three or four tree species. For comparison, the tropical rainforest biome contains thousands of tree species. That is not to say that mangrove forests lack diversity. Though the trees themselves are few in species, the ecosystem that these trees create provides a home for a great variety of other organisms.

15. World mangrove forest distribution

16. Threats and conservation The remaining deciduous woodland continues to be cleared for grazing land, while the pasture that has been created is itself threatened by overgrazing and invasive weeds. One large area of natural forest remains in southern Andhra Pradesh and there eleven protected areas but all of them small, the largest being the Rollapadu Bird Sanctuary for the Great Indian Bustard near Nandikotkur in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.

17. MONTANE FORESTS Montane grasslands and scrublands  is a biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The biome includes high altitude grasslands and shrublands around the world. Montane grasslands and shrublands located above the tree line are commonly known as alpine tundra, which occurs in mountain regions around the world. Below the tree line are subalpine and montane grasslands and shrublands. Stunted subalpine forests are known as krummholz, and occur just below the tree line, where harsh, windy conditions and poor soils create dwarfed and twisted forests of slow-growing trees.

18. THE THORN FORESTS AND SCRUBS The  Deccan thorn scrub forests  is a xeric shrubland ecoregionof India and northernmost Sri Lanka, a large area that was once forest and home to large numbers of elephants and tigers.

19. There are about 17,500 taxa of flowering plants from India. The Indian Forest Act, 1927 helped to improve protection of the natural habitat.

20. Forest Cover In India

21. Threat Category (IUCN) Number of species Extinct 19 Extinct/Endangered 43 Endangered 149 Endangered/Vulnerable 2 Vulnerable 108 Rare 256 Indeterminate 719 Insufficiently Known 9 No information 1441 Not threatened 374 TOTAL 3120 Threatened Plant Species In India

22. Threatened Animal species Number of species per group according to IUCN threat categories (1994)

23. Flora Of India The Flora of India is one of the richest of the world due to a wide range of climate, topology and environments in the country. It is thought there are over 15000 species of flowering plants in India, which account for 6 percent of the total plant species in the world. and probably many more species

24. Corbett National Park Corbett National Park offers different kinds of vegetation all along its varied topography.....110 species of trees, 51 species of shrubs and over 33 species of bamboo . In addition, there are  trees such as palas (Butea monospermous, the flame of the forest), which sets the forest alight with the bright orange red color, offering a spectacular sight to park's visitors. Over 50 mammals, 580 birds and 25 reptile species have been listed in the Corbett which is known as Heaven for Tigers. Corbett had the proud distinction of being chosen as the venue for the inauguration of Project Tiger in India. The rich biodiversity of the Reserve is partly attributed to the variety of habitat found here. Due to the location of the Reserve in the foothills of the Central Himalayas both Himalayan and peninsular flora and fauna is found in the Reserve.

25. Bandhavgarh National Park Bandhavgarh Flora And Fauna Bandhavgarh is very rich in floral diversity due to combination of landforms and soil types, and the moist character of the region. Forests types of Bandhavgarh can be identified as Moist Peninsular Sal Forest and Southern tropical Moist Mixed Deciduous Forest and Southern Tropical Dry Mixed Deciduous Forest. The reserve has over 600 species of flowering plants, 50 species of aquatic plants and 18 species of rare plants. Bandhavgarh National Parks has variety of tree that one may comes across during visit

26. ‘India’s Natural Vegetation Has Undergone Many Changes Due To Various Factors’ What Are They? The Growing Demand For Cultivated Land. Development Of Industrial And Mining. Urbanization Over Grazing Of Pastures

27. A Note On The Indian Flora. 47,000 Plant Species-10 th In World And 4 th In Asia. 15,000 Flowering Plants-6% Of The World’s Total. India Is Also Rich In Non-Flowering Plants Like Ferns, Algae And Fungi. Flora Ranges From One Found In Tropics To The Arctic Region, Due To The Country’s Varied Relief ,Temperature And Rainfall Conditions. Most Of Himalayan And Peninsular Regions Are Covered With Indigenous Vegetation. These Species Are Found In The North Indian Plains And The Thar Desert. Owning To Destruction Of Forests For Agriculture And Industrial Development , Several Plants Are Facing Existence. The Vegetal Cover Of India ,In large Parts, Is No More ‘natural’ In A Real Sense. Except Some Inaccessible Regions Like The Thar Desert Or The Himalayas, The Vegetation Has Been Destroyed In Some Places Or Replaced Or Degraded By Human Occupancy.

28. Have You Ever Wondered ‘What Influences The Kind Of vegetation Found In The Mountains?’

29. -The Decrease In Temperature With Increasing Altitude Leads To The Corresponding Change In Natural Vegetation. There Is A Succession of Natural Vegetation Belts In The Same Order As We See From The Tropical To The Tundra Region.

30. THE END