{"id":195967,"date":"2022-07-16T18:39:36","date_gmt":"2022-07-16T13:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=195967"},"modified":"2022-07-16T18:41:46","modified_gmt":"2022-07-16T13:11:46","slug":"community-evolves-slowly-in-rainforests-like-indias-kudremukh-and-silent-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/community-evolves-slowly-in-rainforests-like-indias-kudremukh-and-silent-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Community evolves slowly in rainforests like India\u2019s Kudremukh and Silent Valley\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cCommunity evolves slowly in rainforests like India\u2019s Kudremukh and Silent Valley\u201d<\/strong> published in the Times of India on 16th<\/sup> July 2022.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS3 Ecology and Environment<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: Rainforest Ecosystem in India<\/p>\n

Context:<\/strong> The Silent Valley national park<\/strong> in Kerala and Kudremukh national park<\/strong> in Karnataka. The former had witnessed a rich conservation history involving a people\u2019s movement to stop a dam and creating a national park. Whereas, the latter is one of the first rainforests<\/strong> that is present in the Western Ghats.<\/p>\n

An ecological principle<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In natural ecosystems like forests, the species get together to form a community. Further, there won\u2019t be just one dominant species of trees in the ecosystem, there would be diverse kinds of trees living there. Thus, it means there will be incredible diversity<\/strong> in a forest ecosystem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Example, tropical rainforests in South America or Southeast Asia could have 800 to 1,000 different species in one hectare alone.<\/p>\n

This varies, depending on the history of how species evolved over time and climate.<\/p>\n

There will be different levels of diversity between a forest in India, Borneo or Panama.<\/p>\n

What are the processes that maintain such diversity in an ecosystem<\/strong>?<\/h5>\n

Each species has its own \u2018niche\u2019<\/strong> or requirement for the resources like light, water and some nutrients. For example, all the species don\u2019t use resources at the same level. Some thrive in bright sunshine,<\/strong> some in dark<\/strong> and some in dappled sunshine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Therefore, these differential requirements<\/strong> of light, water and soil nutrients lead to species differentiation <\/strong>and prevent any one species from becoming dominant in complex ecosystems<\/strong> like tropical rainforests<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There are continuous interactions between plants<\/strong>, insects<\/strong> and fungi<\/strong>. It ensures no one species becomes dominant, and a community is upheld. For example,<\/p>\n

(a) Small organisms<\/strong> enable diversity in the complex ecosystem through the process of eating plants and regulating the population of the plants and trees.<\/p>\n

(2) The disease-causing pathogens<\/strong> act as enemies of trees. The population of the trees may be destroyed by these pathogens. In such a situation, other species come in and establish themselves in that space.<\/p>\n

Role of Human Actions on these complex interactions: <\/strong><\/h5>\n

(1) Humans have modified forests<\/strong>. The large forest places have been chopped up into smaller pieces for agriculture, roads or logging.<\/p>\n

(2) Further, such human interventions like fragmentations of forests, increase the ability of the natural enemies like pathogens to impact the plants.<\/p>\n

The rodents work with greater strength in fragmented forest<\/strong> or near forest edges<\/strong> as compared to interiors of forest. For example, rodents like porcupines and wild rats are able to eat more seeds in an impacted fragment<\/strong> versus a less disturbed forest.<\/p>\n

Way Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

These rainforest ecosystems in South India have diverse systems,<\/strong> like rainforests below, grasslands and sholas in the upper regions.\u00a0 Therefore, it is important to preserve them as these are sanctuaries of nature\u2019s evolutionary history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on an article \u201cCommunity evolves slowly in rainforests like India\u2019s Kudremukh and Silent Valley\u201d published in the Times of India on 16th July 2022. Syllabus: GS3 Ecology and Environment Relevance: Rainforest Ecosystem in India Context: The Silent Valley national park in Kerala and Kudremukh national park in Karnataka. The former… Continue reading \u2018Community evolves slowly in rainforests like India\u2019s Kudremukh and Silent Valley\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10496],"class_list":["post-195967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704635922},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}