Swapan Kumar Sarker

Shahjalal University of Science and Technology · Department of Forestry and Environmental Science

Wood density is an important functional trait used to estimate forest biomass and carbon stocks. Its wider range of variations, such as inter- and intra-specific level, and within tree disparity, repeatedly invoke wood density as a potential source of variation in biomass or carbon estimation. We aim to (i) measure pith-to-bark wood density profile...

Salinity-influenced ecosystems are projected to face a tree-level growth reduction as a response to climate change. Although large and mature trees play a central role in defining carbon dynamics and site conditions, their eco-physiological and functional responses to increasing salinity remain poorly understood. Therefore, we test our hypotheses,...

Mangrove forests, some of the most carbon-dense ecosystems on Earth, play an important role in climate change mitigation through storing carbon in the soil. However, increasing anthropogenic pressures and sea level rise are likely to alter mangrove forest structure and functions, including the major source of carbon in mangrove ecosystems: below-gr...

The Sundarbans World Heritage ecosystem provides valuable ecosystem goods and services to >7.5 million coastal people in South Asia. This sentinel mangrove ecosystem is threatened by historical anthropogenic disturbances, salinity intrusion and long-term environmental changes including sea level rise. Understanding which factors regulate mangroves’...

Mangroves continue to be threatened across their range by a mix of anthropogenic and climate change-related stress. Climate change-induced salinity is likely to alter the structure and functions of highly productive mangrove systems. However, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of how rising salinity affects forest structure and functions b...

Conservation of biological diversity is one of the most challenging issues in the present era. The role of religious beliefs in conserving biodiversity is well appreciated and religious institutions are often integrated into the conservation action plans. However, we still lack an explicit understanding of the efficacy of these religious institutio...

Forecasting productivity and stress across an ecosystem is complicated by the multiple interactions between competing species, the unknown levels of intra‐ and interspecific trait plasticity, and the dependencies between those traits within individuals. Integrating these features into a trait‐based quantitative framework requires a conceptual and q...

Disentangling the co-existing patterns (random or non-random) of species and to infer about assembly rules underpinning the observed patterns are central research issues in community ecology. Previous empirical results suggested that Diamond's assembly rule explains a considerable amount of observed species spatial distribution pattern variation. H...

Aim: Palms are an iconic, diverse and often abundant component of tropical ecosystems that provide many ecosystem services. Being monocots, tree palms are evolutionarily, morphologically and physiologically distinct from other trees, and these differences have important consequences for ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage) an...

Knowledge gaps in spatiotemporal changes in mangrove diversity and composition have obstructed mangrove conservation programs across the tropics, but particularly in the Sundarbans (10,017 km 2), the world's largest remaining natural mangrove ecosystem. Using mangrove tree data collected from Earth's largest permanent sample plot network at four hi...

Aim Mangrove forests are among the most threatened and rapidly vanishing, but poorly understood ecosystems. We aim to uncover the variables driving mangrove biodiversity and produce baseline biodiversity maps for the Sundarbans world heritage site—the Earth's largest contiguous mangrove ecosystem. Location The Bangladesh Sundarbans, South Asia. M...

Significance Identifying and explaining regional differences in tropical forest dynamics, structure, diversity, and composition are critical for anticipating region-specific responses to global environmental change. Floristic classifications are of fundamental importance for these efforts. Here we provide a global tropical forest classification tha...

The Sundarbans, the largest mangrove ecosystem in the world, is under threat from historical and future human exploitation and sea level rise. Limited scientific knowledge on the spatial ecology of the mangroves in this world heritage ecosystem has been a major impediment to conservation efforts. Here, for the first time, we report on habitat suita...

Juri is a biodiversity-rich primary forest in Bangladesh, which remains ecologically unexplored. We identified tree species and examined the richness, alpha (α) diversity and floristic similarity patterns within the identified communities. Vegetation and environmental data were sampled in 120 (0.04 ha) study plots. Tree communities were delimited b...

Internationally, the decentralization of property rights is becoming an increasingly common policy intervention for sustainable natural resource management. In the context of decentralized wetland fisheries policy in Bangladesh, this paper examines the role that social capital plays in cooperation building and collective action among diverse househ...

Juri is a biodiversity-rich primary forest in Bangladesh, which remains ecologically unexplored. We identified tree species and examined the richness, alpha (α) diversity and floristic similarity patterns within the identified communities. Vegetation and environmental data were sampled in 120 (0.04 ha) study plots. Tree communities were delimited b...

Abstract Madhupur National Park is renowned for severe resource ownership conflicts between ethnic communities and government authorities in Bangladesh. In this study, we applied the Institutional Analysis and Development framework to identify: (i) past and present informal institutional structures within the ethnic Garo community for land resource...

In this paper, we provide a primary assessment on the relationships between vegetation and environmental factors for the ecologically unexplored tropical Juri forest, Bangladesh, using numerical methods. Vegetation and environmental data (13 variables) were collected from 120 sample plots. We classified and verified vegetation communities using Two...

Timber species grouping (TSG) is essential for meaningful and cost-optimal use of wood. Bangladesh forests are exceedingly diverse and comprise many woody species which are potentially suitable for versatile uses including structural materials. Traditionally, widely known tree species are used for structural timber because technological properties...

Tarap Hill Reserve, the largest upland reserve of Bangladesh, is situated along the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot. It encompasses the last remaining patches of natural vegetation in the Northeastern Tarap Mountain System and harbors 87 % of the nationally declared red-listed vascular plant species. Despite requiring high conservation priority, th...

Estimation of leaf area (LA) and leaf biomass (LB) is important to understand plant physiological and carbon assimilation processes, and tree growth models. The aim of this study was to develop and compare allometric equations for predicting LA and LB of Artocarpus chaplasha Roxb. taking diameter at breast height (DBH) and tree height as predictors...

The decentralization of resource property rights has become an increasingly popular policy in many natural resource-dependent communities of the developing world. However, the success of this policy approach depends on both collective action and institutionalization. It is therefore important to evaluate collective action and institutionalization w...

Imposing logging ban has become widespread in the tropics. Bangladesh government enforced logging bans in 1970s and 1980s to halt deforestation. Such bans have been considered as a strategy to protect and conserve forests although success requires rigorous analysis. In this paper, the performances of the existing logging bans in Bangladesh are exam...

The cultivation of different plants around homesteads for subsistence and cash income has been a long tradition in Bangladesh. This study explores stand structure, composition, and biodiversity within the homestead agroforests of the drought-prone, northwestern region of Bangladesh. In 96 randomly selected homesteads within 3 study villages, we ide...

Inventory of forest carbon depends directly or indirectly on the estimation of biomass. Tree biomass equations are the basic tool for converting inventory data into biomass as well as carbon stock. A number of models were tried to find out a best-fit-model for estimating above ground stem biomass (SB) of Karach (Pongamia pinnata) in the Ratargul fr...

SUMMARY Sal (Shorea robusta) forest is a threatened ecosystem in Bangladesh. Until the beginning of the 20th century Sal forests existed as a large continuous belt with rich biological resources, but increasing pressure has been placed on them since then due to the ever-increasing population. Most of the forest area at present is under occupation b...

The Shaiji, a religio-cultural community of southwestern Bangladesh, have an indigenous medication system using locally grown plants. A total of 36 individuals were interviewed using questionnaire. The Shaiji, living in the interior or near bushy habitats for the sake of meditation and other spiritual activities, were found to be totally dependent...