IMPACT OF AGERATUM HOUSTONIANUM MILL. INVASION ON PLANT DIVERSITY AND CROPS IN DIFFERENT LAND USE TYPES OF KANCHANPUR, NEPAL
Date
2023-08-14
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Publisher
Amrit Campus
Abstract
Invasive plant species means an alien species which become established in natural or
semi-natural ecosystems and threatens native biological diversity. It has high resistant
capacity, produce large number of seeds and can grow easily in different types of
habitat. It can out-compete native species, reduces wildlife habitat potential, alter
ecosystem processes and change soil properties and have great role in land cover
change. Ageratum houstonianum is a native species of America that enters to Nepal.
It has grown in different land use (agriculture, forest, grassland). Laljhadhi-Mohana
Biological corridor (LMBC) is corridor between Suklaphanta national park and
Dudhwa national park largest national park of India. Corridor is a pathway of plants
and animals so invasive plants species can easily enters. From India to Nepal invasive
species can easily enters through corridors and may impact native species diversity.
To understand the impact of A. houstoniunum on species diversity, vegetation
sampling was done. Altogether 120 plots of size 2m×2m were laid in each sampling
site (invaded and non-invaded sites).Different quantitative parameters for vegetation
analysis like frequency, density, coverage, IVI, Simpson Index, Shannon Wiener
Index were calculated. Results showed that the diversity of non-invaded area was
greater than the invaded area. To understand the impact of allelochemical effect of
leaf to the crop plant, different concentrations (2, 10, 20, 30, 50%) were prepared.
Seed germination of winter and summer crop plant was done in different
concentrations of leaf extract and also in control to compare the impact. Germination
was significantly inhibited (p=0.05) in higher concentrations (20, 20, 50%) than lower
concentrations (2, 10%) of mustard crop. Measurement of radicle and plumule was
taken. Growth rate was lower in high concentrations (20, 30, 50%) than low
concentrations (2, 10%). Summer crop (maize and paddy) was not affected by
allelochemical effect of leaf extract but winter crop (mustard and wheat) was highly
affected by allelochemical effect of A. houstonianum.
Description
Keywords
Allelochemical, corridor, invaded, non-invaded