Impacts of soil qualities and Prosopis juliflora on density, canopy volume and community position of Leptadenia pyrotechnica in Arid regions of India.

In the present study, we explored how the combination of site soil qualities and invasion by Prosopis juliflora affects the species specific (Leptadenia pyrotechnica) morphological (canopy volume) and population traits (density and Relative Importance Value) in an arid region of the India. For this, we surveyed 9 sites, categorized under two scenarios sites (n = 5) invaded by P. juliflora (Scenario 1), and sites (n = 4) un-invaded with P. juliflora (Scenario 2). With respect to sites, density of both these species exhibited reverse trends to each other. Similar trends were also recorded for canopy volume and cover of L. pyrotechnica and P. juliflora, respectively. We found log-normal distribution types at all the studied sites. In our empirical study, fifteen Relative Importance Value (RIV) of P. juliflora was identified as threshold level beyond which it can drastically reduced the community diversity and niche space of various associates. Further, Relative Severity of Competition (RSC for density, canopy volume and cover) suggested that density (RSC 0.24) and canopy volume (RSC 0.20) of L. pyrotechnica suffered most due to invasion of P. juliflora. Partial Least Square (PLS), regression suggested that density of L. pyrotechnica and P. juliflora are orthogonal to each other indicated significant negative relationships between both of them (r² = − 0.95). Soil potassium and organic carbon are located close to density of L. pyrotechnica that is both these two variables have positive impacts with density (r² = 0.95). Similar positive relationships also observed between canopy volume and clay content (r² = 0.95), while, sand content was orthogonal to this parameter (r² = − 0.95). Present study suggested how the invasive P. juliflora along with certain soil factors controls the population, morphological and community position attributes of L. pyrotechnica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]