00000nam a2200000 a 4500 20251203115458.0 Ayyappan,N. Dr.N.Parthasarathy Biodiversity of trees and short-term population changes in a tropical evergreen forest in the Anamalais,Western Ghats,India. Pondicherry Salim Ali School of Ecology,Pondicherry University. Western Ghats Tropical forests Tree diversity Permanent plot Forest dynamics. Reader,School of Ecology ENG _ BIodiversity of trees was investigated in a large-scale 30hapermanent plot of a tropical evergreen forest at Varagalaiar,Anamalais,Western Ghats,India.Tree species richness totaled 153 species in 50 families from a total of 13,415 individuals.Mean species richness,density and basal area per hectare were 66 species,447 trees and 36.47m,respectively.Shannon,Simpson and evenness index values respectively were 3.94,0.034 and 0.782 respectively for the 30-ha plot.Species-area curve attained an asymptote at 27th hectare.Girth class frequency of the stand exhibited an expanding population structure.Most tree species exhibited either clumped or uniform patterns,while random pattern was rare.Recensuses of the permanent plot after two years revealed that a total of 250 trees died and 336 trees recruited.Tree mortality differed between size classes.One species,Ficus beddomei,disappeared and there was no new addition of species.The results are compared with other tropical forests,and discussed T99040 R 212976 212976 0 0 0 1 PU PU 2003-02-10 0 T99040 R