Work

Population Structure and Canopy Dominance of Two Emergent Dipterocarp Species in a Tropical Rain Forest of Sarawak, East Malaysia.

Year: 1995

Type: article

Abstract: Population structure and canopy dominance of Dryobalanops aromatica and D. lanceolata were studied in a tropical rain forest of Sarawak, East Malaysia, using a large permanent plot (52 ha in size). D. aromatica was the most abundant canopy species (number of trees ≥ 1 cm DBH per 52-ha (N) = 8702), while D. lanceolata was much less abundant (N = 949). Neither species was dominant in the whole plot scale (52 ha), but they predominated the main canopy and emergent trees very locally in a scale of ca. 1 ha. In their most dense I-ha subplots, D. aromatica and D. lanceolata occupied, respectively, 23% and 15% of trees ≥ 30 cm DBH in number, and 30% and 27% in basal area. These values were comparable to the dominance of Dryobalanops species reported in other regions (25-30% in basal area), but much lower than the dominance of other typical monodominant tropical rain forest species (often > 50% in tree number). The total number of canopy tree species in each 1-ha subplot was similar to those of typical mixed tropical rain forests in the Asian tropics, suggesting little effect of Dryobalanops predominance on the species diversity of other canopy trees.

Source: Tropics

DOI: 10.3759/tropics.4.133

Authors: Akira ITOH, Takuo YAMAKURA, Kazuhiko OGINO, Hua Seng LEE, Peter S. ASHTON