Research Projects

Coastal sand dune (CSD) ecosystem is unique and it is a transitional zone lies between sea and land. CSDs provide provisioning (material or energy outputs from ecosystem), protection (protecting coast from storm surges, C sequestration), cultural (habitats and recreational spots) and supporting (habitat for plant, animal and microbes) services. Plant communities play a pivotal role in stabilizing the sand dune structure through capturing and holding the sand particles. However, CSD ecosystem poses great challenges for the establishment, survival and growth of plants colonizing it due to the edaphic, nutrient and climatic factors; and could be considered as an extreme environment for the flora. Researchers recognized the dune ecosystems as an oligotrophic habitat with low to very low soil nutrient availability (N, P and K). Among the nutrients, severe deficiency of N is largely limiting the productivity and competitive abilities of plants. Phosphorus acts as second most important limiting mineral nutrients. The N and P contents of soil have been reflected in the N: P ratio of plant tissues hence the same could be considered as suitable proxies for the relative availability of N and P. A great number of researches showed plant functional traits (PFTs) as a vital tool in the assessment of responses of plant species, populations and communities to global climate change. PFTs which affect growth, development, reproduction and survival of sand dune plants directly or indirectly need to be studied in detail. Studies on PFTs which respond to climate change have been very limited in India. Research on PFTs of CSD plant community have been very limited thus the study aimed to record selected leaf, root and whole plant functional traits of plants growing in sand dune ecosystems, a poor nutrient habitat occurring in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu, India. The state of Tamil Nadu is a home for 3093.19 ha of CSDs. Among coastal districts, Tuticorin has larger area under CSDs (ISE-MoEFCC, 2020). The CSDs of Tuticorin support a large number of plant species. Both native and invasive alien species (IAS) are growing on CSDs. This feature could help me to study what are the functional traits are helping the IAS for successful establishment, survival and reproduction on CSDs.