Biodiversity and ecology of lianas in TDEFs of India

Lianas are one of the most interesting life-forms which occur predominantly in tropical forests. Despite their multi-faceted role in tropical forest ecosystems, lianas remain largely neglected in many ecological studies due to their complex nature. One of the major structural changes happening in tropical forest is the increase of liana abundance and biomass. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to understand their ecological role in tropical forest structure and functioning. Through this book we attempted to address few ecological questions on the role of lianas and their relationship with host trees in tropical dry evergreen forest on the Coromandel Coast of India.