XVI International Botanical Congess

Fragmented populations may occur a) in isolated forest patches, b) in naturally discrete pockets within a forest patch or c) in isolated clusters within a forest patch due to human induced pressures. Each of these may have different consequences on the reproductive success and the genetic differentiation of the populations. We examined the seed set, recruitment and genetic structuring of populations of selected species in such fragmented populations in the deciduous forests of south India. Thus our studies show that fragmentation of populations as in case (a) and (b) with in a forest can lead to genetic differentiation of populations and mimic the large scale response obtained from actual fragmentation of habitats.