STRUCTURAL ALTERATION IN STANDING VEGETATION, SEED BANK AND SOIL FERTILITY IN THE VICINITY OF BRICK KILN INDUSTRY IN THE DRY TROPICAL NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION OF DELHI, INDIA

Dry tropical urban ecosystems are fragile and extremely dynamic because of anthropogenic disturbances including industrialization, automation, fast population growth and distance from metropolitan centers.The brick construction industry is a thriving business that rapidly degrades the environment and threatens the regeneration capacity in Indian dry tropics.The duration of exposure and distance from the brick kiln was investigated seasonally in this study for their effects on nearby soils, seed bank (SB) and standing vegetation (SV) at Meerut.In SV, a total of 101 angiospermic plant species (63.4% alien, 40.6%American origin and 84.2% weedy herbs) were recorded over 34 families across various seasons.More than 60.4% of these species belonged to eight dominant families, with Fabaceae leading the pack, followed by Poaceae, Asteraceae, Amaranthaceae, Malvaceae, Solanaceae, and Euphorbiaceae.In contrast, a total of 29 SB flora (2 unidentified, 63% alien, 33.3%American origin and 86.2% herbs) were distributed over 16 angiospermic families, top seven most dominant with Poaceae, followed by Malvaceae, Fabaceae, Asteraceae, Amaranthaceae, Solanaceae and Euphorbiaceae.The working brick kiln (WBK) subsite, which was exposed to industrial activity, displayed higher mean aboveground biomass in the rainy season followed by winter and summer seasons and lower mean soil organic C, total N, available P, pH and moisture content.Whereas, these soil parameters were relatively rich at the agricultural land subsite (AGL) in all three seasons.which has also experienced anthropogenically less disturbance.This study showed that long-term brick kiln industrial activity had an impact on the properties of soil, as well as the structure of plant biomass and the diversity of aboveground and belowground species.This structural change in a standing vegetation and seed bank raises questions about the anthropo-potential ecosystems for adaptability in the dry tropics of India.