| Invasive Species plaguing Indian Forests • Prosopis Juliflora: Invades dry grassland savannas and dry deciduous forests, altering ecosystems by outcompeting native vegetation, affecting soil moisture regimes, and disrupting natural disturbances. • Lantana camara: An aggressive invader affecting diverse landscapes, it disrupts native biodiversity, promotes wildfires, and poses significant threats to agricultural and natural ecosystems. • Mesosphaerum suaveolens: Spreads in dry savannas and deciduous forests, impacting native plant communities, altering ecosystem functions, and reducing biodiversity. |
- Woody Encroachment and Its Effects, a study published in Global Change Biology found that more trees in open ecosystems like savannahs and grasslands have substantially reduced the number of native grassland birds.
- In the African Savannah, the population of grassland birds has declined by over 20%.
- Grasslands and savannahs are biodiverse habitats in tropical and temperate regions worldwide, covering nearly 40% of the earth’s landmass.
- They host many endemic and at-risk species of plants and animals.
- However, they are rapidly being lost due to conversion to agriculture, erosion, large-scale development and overgrazing.
- An unusual threat is woody encroachment, the increase in tree and shrub cover converting open habitats to wooded ones, leading to ecosystem homogenization.
- Grasslands occur across different climatic regimes. In the Himalayan foothills, tall, wet grasslands are inhabited by iconic species such as Indian one-horned rhinoceroses and Bengal floricans.
- Invasive Species Large-scale tree plantation programs have exacerbated the problem.
Dig Deeper: Take note of Gliricidia, an invasive tree species that was in discussion recently.
