Fragmentation causes woody plant composition decline in sacred grove patches in the Puducherry region of Southeast India

International audienceThe fragmentation of tropical forests threatens plant community compositions worldwide. In the present study, we examined the impact of fragmentation on plant community compositions over 30 years in sacred forest grove fragments in southern India. For this study, we randomly selected 30 sacred grove patches (hereafter referred to as fragments) of different sizes to examine the effects of fragment size and historical changes on the plant community compositions. A total of 414 woody plant individuals consisting of 53 species belonging to 45 genera and 20 families were recorded from the 30 sites. The total area of the fragments was not significantly related to the current species richness or diversity, although there were significant negative relationships between the total fragment size and the species composition and between the total fragment size and the species evenness, indicating that fragmentation negatively impacted woody plant compositions. Interestingly, our results showed that the woody tree abundance was significantly and positively related to the total fragment size, suggesting a potential increase in recruitment due to the various forms of ongoing human disturbances. Moreover, the woody plant species compositions may be declining in these venerated forest patches due to the removal of plant resources, potentially resulting in declining fragment sizes