Abstract

Individual of plant species in a given vegetation are distributed in one of the three basic patterns: random, aggregated, or regular. The pattern of species distribution depends on so many factors. In the present paper the pattern of species distribution in various forest types of Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary has been analysed. For this, stratified random sampling techniques were used. It is found that contiguous distribution is common in most of the forest types except in pioneer Euphorbiaceous scrub and one locality of Southern secondary moist deciduous forest. In these forest types high random distribution of species is seen due to pioneer successional stage of the former and severe adverse conditions prevailing in the latter. Only dominant species exhibit regular distribution. It also reveals that the pattern of distribution of species varies from type to type. Environmental and edaphic heterogeneity together with competition play an important role in the distribution