Vegetative and Reproductive Phenology of some Selected Timber-yielding Tree Species in Borail Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam, India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36808/if/2025/v151i5/169670Keywords:
Arboreal species, Environmental impact, Northeast India, Phenophase, TreeAbstract
Phenological studies provide a better understanding in the periodicity of phenophases in various seasons and relationships between the species and environmental factors. This paper presents the phenology of 12-timber yielding tree species in relation to rainfall and temperature. A total of 36 matured individuals representing 12 tree species were monitored for phenology over a period of three years from 2017 to 2019 in Borail Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam, India. Phenological phases like period of leaf abscission, leaf initiation, leaf growth, flowering, fruiting, seed dispersal and germination were recorded fortnightly. Various environmental parameters like precipitation, temperature, seasonality, were found to play crucial roles on the phenology of the tree species. Relationship between various phenophases and environmental factors was examined by using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Leaf abscission manifested significant negative correlation with maximum and minimum temperature and rainfall, whereas, the remaining phenophases viz. leaf growth, flowering, fruiting and seed germination were shown significant positive correlation with temperature and rainfall for all the three years. The findings from this study can be utilized for management and conservation of the timber resources of the sanctuary in a scientific and sustainable way.
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