Recovery rate of vegetation in the tsunami impacted littoral forest of Nicobar Islands, India.

Highlights: [•] Indian Ocean Tsunami resulted in loss of coastal vegetation in Nicobar Islands. [•] Natural recovery of coastal forest after tsunami was studied. [•] Disturbance in soil substratum had influenced the vegetation recovery. [•] Unaffected soil sites showed faster vegetation recovery than sand deposited sites. [•] Prevalence of self thinning process in the unaffected soil sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]