ABSTRACT
This study has been carried out to assess the diverse floristic wealth in urban forest area of NEERI campus at Nagpur, Maharashtra (India). This urban forest is ecologically important to maintain the atmospheric temperature around 2 degrees C below and higher relative humidity as compared to other urban areas. The water table is also observed to be shallower in this area as compared to other areas. Therefore, the biological diversity of this urban forest was studied, as it is directly related to ecology of the area. Floristic survey of NEERI premises recorded 135 vascular plants including 16 monocots and 119 dicots, belonging to 115 genera and 53 families. The taxa included 4 types of grasses, 55 herbs, 30 shrubs and 46 trees. The large number of species within very small area (43 ha) indicates rich biodiversity in this forest area. It is also observed that this forest patch has tall trees, with good density and rich cover of shrubs and herbs on forest floor indicating well knit plant community. These characteristics have given immense ecological importance to this urban forest area. Detailed vegetation study revealed that positive co-operation in the plant communities can significantly maintain species diversity in the environment.
Subject(s)
Biodiversity , Cities , Conservation of Natural Resources , Ecology , Ecosystem , Environment , Geology , India , Plants , Temperature , Trees/physiology , Tropical ClimateABSTRACT
The present study deals with assessment of water quality of four selected lakes in the Nagpur city using physicochemical and biological parameters especially phytoplankton and zooplankton community. Tropic level and pollution status of lakes were assessed on the basis of the Palmer's Pollution Index, Shannon Wiener Index and physico-chemical parameters. 57 genera belonging to 7 groups of phytoplankton and 10 genera belonging to 3 groups of zooplankton were identified from the lakes. Different patterns of dominance and sub-dominance of indicator plankton community and species along with physico-chemical quality observed confirm the pollution status of the lakes.