Pattern of Species Distribution along Environmental Variables in Two Different Forest Beat of Raghunandan Reserve Forest of Habiganj

The study has piloted to find the Pattern of species distribution along environmental variables and disturbance in Raghunandan Reserve Forest. Shaltila and Shahapur beat of Raghunandan Hill Reserve Forest are situated in Chunarughat sub-district of Habiganj district between $24^{\circ}5^{\prime}-24^{\circ}10^{\prime}N$ and $91^{\circ}25^{\prime}-91^{\circ}30^{\prime}E$ under the Sylhet Forest Division. The Environmental variable and vegetation data were collected from 30 sample plots from each forest beat by using arbitrary sampling without preconceived bias. 51 species were found from Shaltila and 34 species found in Shahapur forest beat. Thus the dataset continued with total 85 species in 60 samples. To determine the relationships between tree species distribution and environmental variables, Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) ordination method were performed separately for two forest beat. In CCA ordination, tree species showed significant variation along environmental gradients in terms of soil organic matter and disturbances (p<0.05) in the case of Shaltila forest. Potassium has a significant relationship with axis 1 and axis 2 in this forest. But Shahapur forest showed no significant relationship between species and environmental variables. Phosphorus has a significantly negative relationship with axis 2 in this forest. Disturbance played as a critical role of this forest thus influencing the distribution of species. The study showed that the distributions of tree species are strongly influenced by disturbance and organic matter in Shaltila and Shahapur forest beat showed no significant relationship between species and environmental variables. Future research should be included more environmental variables with larger study area that identify the most important environmental forces which will drive by species distribution findings in this forest.