Sundarbans is the largest, biologically richest, and most extensive mangrove forest in the world (Christensen, 1984; Seidensticker and Hai, 1983; Hussain and Karim, 1994). Heritiera fomes (Sundri) is the predominant tree species, supporting about 65% of the total merchantable timber (Chaffey et al., 1985, and Siddiqi, 2001). A unknown and serious-killer disease (top dying) of H. fomes in Sundarbans is affecting millions of the trees. An inventory by Chaffey et al., (1985) revealed that there were about 45.2 million top dying trees in the Sundarbans of which 20 million had more than 50% of their crown affected by top dying. The loss of H. fomes will have a major impact on the Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem, which leads to economic losses. The vegetation structure was assessed in terms of tree height, bole diameter, species present, and regeneration status; and the intensity of top-dying within the plots was recorded on a rank scale. Most of the elements studied had no significant correlation with the top dying of Heritiera fomes. Of the hypotheses previously put forward to explain top-dying, the present results do not support enhanced salinity as the cause. It is likely that several of the above-mentioned environmental factors interact with each other to induce top dying in Sundri. However, the present results have showed that Sn, Exchangeable K, soil pH, Pb , Zn and Ni could be directly linked with top-dying of Heritiera fomes (Sundri) in Sundarbans, probably particularly by weakening the vigour of the trees and allowing other factors such as pathological agents to attack the plants.
| Published in | American Journal of BioScience (Volume 2, Issue 4) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.14 |
| Page(s) | 135-146 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Causal Factors, Seedling and Sapling Percentage, Trees Diameter, Height, Structure, Species Density, Heritiera Fomes, Mangrove, Sundarbans, Top-Dying
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APA Style
Awal Mohd Abdul. (2014). Analysis of Vegetation Structure Causing Top-Dying In Mangrove Forest Trees in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh. American Journal of BioScience, 2(4), 135-146. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.14
ACS Style
Awal Mohd Abdul. Analysis of Vegetation Structure Causing Top-Dying In Mangrove Forest Trees in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh. Am. J. BioScience 2014, 2(4), 135-146. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.14
AMA Style
Awal Mohd Abdul. Analysis of Vegetation Structure Causing Top-Dying In Mangrove Forest Trees in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh. Am J BioScience. 2014;2(4):135-146. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.14
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.14,
author = {Awal Mohd Abdul},
title = {Analysis of Vegetation Structure Causing Top-Dying In Mangrove Forest Trees in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh},
journal = {American Journal of BioScience},
volume = {2},
number = {4},
pages = {135-146},
doi = {10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.14},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.14},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajbio.20140204.14},
abstract = {Sundarbans is the largest, biologically richest, and most extensive mangrove forest in the world (Christensen, 1984; Seidensticker and Hai, 1983; Hussain and Karim, 1994). Heritiera fomes (Sundri) is the predominant tree species, supporting about 65% of the total merchantable timber (Chaffey et al., 1985, and Siddiqi, 2001). A unknown and serious-killer disease (top dying) of H. fomes in Sundarbans is affecting millions of the trees. An inventory by Chaffey et al., (1985) revealed that there were about 45.2 million top dying trees in the Sundarbans of which 20 million had more than 50% of their crown affected by top dying. The loss of H. fomes will have a major impact on the Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem, which leads to economic losses. The vegetation structure was assessed in terms of tree height, bole diameter, species present, and regeneration status; and the intensity of top-dying within the plots was recorded on a rank scale. Most of the elements studied had no significant correlation with the top dying of Heritiera fomes. Of the hypotheses previously put forward to explain top-dying, the present results do not support enhanced salinity as the cause. It is likely that several of the above-mentioned environmental factors interact with each other to induce top dying in Sundri. However, the present results have showed that Sn, Exchangeable K, soil pH, Pb , Zn and Ni could be directly linked with top-dying of Heritiera fomes (Sundri) in Sundarbans, probably particularly by weakening the vigour of the trees and allowing other factors such as pathological agents to attack the plants.},
year = {2014}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Analysis of Vegetation Structure Causing Top-Dying In Mangrove Forest Trees in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh AU - Awal Mohd Abdul Y1 - 2014/07/20 PY - 2014 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.14 DO - 10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.14 T2 - American Journal of BioScience JF - American Journal of BioScience JO - American Journal of BioScience SP - 135 EP - 146 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-0167 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajbio.20140204.14 AB - Sundarbans is the largest, biologically richest, and most extensive mangrove forest in the world (Christensen, 1984; Seidensticker and Hai, 1983; Hussain and Karim, 1994). Heritiera fomes (Sundri) is the predominant tree species, supporting about 65% of the total merchantable timber (Chaffey et al., 1985, and Siddiqi, 2001). A unknown and serious-killer disease (top dying) of H. fomes in Sundarbans is affecting millions of the trees. An inventory by Chaffey et al., (1985) revealed that there were about 45.2 million top dying trees in the Sundarbans of which 20 million had more than 50% of their crown affected by top dying. The loss of H. fomes will have a major impact on the Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem, which leads to economic losses. The vegetation structure was assessed in terms of tree height, bole diameter, species present, and regeneration status; and the intensity of top-dying within the plots was recorded on a rank scale. Most of the elements studied had no significant correlation with the top dying of Heritiera fomes. Of the hypotheses previously put forward to explain top-dying, the present results do not support enhanced salinity as the cause. It is likely that several of the above-mentioned environmental factors interact with each other to induce top dying in Sundri. However, the present results have showed that Sn, Exchangeable K, soil pH, Pb , Zn and Ni could be directly linked with top-dying of Heritiera fomes (Sundri) in Sundarbans, probably particularly by weakening the vigour of the trees and allowing other factors such as pathological agents to attack the plants. VL - 2 IS - 4 ER -
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