Community structure, diversity and total aboveground biomass of four pioneer species at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia secondary forest

Abstract

Forest compositions are differ ent according to variation of biogeography, habitat and disturbances. Since trees provide resources and habitat to animals, the diversity of trees is a fundamental to tropical forest diversity. When diversit y and forest composition at the equilibrium level it becomes large reservoir of aboveground biomass and carbon stock. At the same time forest aids in reducing amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the species composition, diversity and aboveground biomass of pioneer species at secondary forest. Four pioneer species were chosen because they were the dominant species in the forest. This study was conducted at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s secondary forest. Fifty plots of 10 m x 10 m were established randomly with total sampling area 0.5 ha. All trees with =5 cm diameter at breast height (dbh) were tagged and measured. To identify species diversity among these four species, Shannon Weiner Index (1949) has been applied. Then, aboveground biomass of pioneer speci es were estimated using Kato’s equation . Total of 256 trees of pioneer species were recorded from fifty plots survey. The dbh ranged between 5 until 77.7 cm and height between 3.2 until 11.5 meter was documented. A total of 1094 t/ha of aboveground biomass was recorded from four pioneer species. Macaranga gigantea becomes the major contribution of forest aboveground biomass since the number of diameter was greater which influenced the number of aboveground biomass which was 1063 t/ha.