A., Husni

Hamzah, Mohd Basri

M. R., Salim

Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository

FOR Category Fl 0900: Agricultural SciencesSPECIES DISTRIBUTION IN THE HILLDIPTEROCARP FOREST IN PENINSULARMALAYSIA AS AFFECTED BY SOIL NUTRIENTSH. Mohd, Basri, A. Husni and M.R. SalimFaculty of ForestryUniversiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor,MalaysiaKeywords: Shorea curtisii, S. leprosula, hill diptero-carp forest, regeneration, forest nutrients.IntroductionShorea cunisii (Seraya) is the major timber species in Penin-sular Malaysia and is also the indicator tree species in the hilldipterocarp forest. The latter forest is the major resource basefor the wood-based industry with sawn logs placed third be-hind petroleum and oil palm in the 1998 export of primaryc?mmodities. Post-harvest regeneration in the fragile hilldipterocarp forest stand is increasingly of concern in its man-agement. Knowledge on Seraya's response to the influence~f s.oiInutrients, as reflected in its topographic distribution, islimited. Such information should be useful in assisting its re-generation since a major portion of disturbance in the post-Fhill dipterocarp forest stand concerns the mineral soil. In thisstudy Seraya's responses to soil nutrients were comparedwith that of S. leprosula (Ternbaga) which represents thenormative lowland dipterocarp timber species. Both specieshave overlapping distribution at the lower elevation of thehill forest.Materials and Methods!he \>tudywas carried out in an inland hill dipteroearp forestID Berembun Forest Reserve, Negri Sembilan State. Thes~udyarea is a normative hill dipterocarp forest with Serayandg~ forest. The climate is typically moist equatorial. Astratified random design was used in locating plots where 60lOxlOm quadrats were established covering three strata cho-sen on the basis of Occurrence and dominance of Serayarelative to Tembaga. For each plot all trees (dbh >::=lOcm)were identified and diameter measured. Seedlings were iden-tified and enumerated. Soil samples were augured (0-30cmdepth) and analysed for pH, available and total phosphorous,total potassium, magnesium nitrogen and CEC. Paired vege-tation and soil data were analysed using Canonical Corre-spondence Analysis (Ter Braak, 1986).Results and DiscussionGenerally strong canonical correlation (fl ;d 0.71) wereshown between species and environmental axes ranging from0.74 to 0.88. Pay,Kloland CEClolwere influential in deter-mining the distribution for both trees and regeneration. Thelatter was also sensitive to Nlol,PIOIand pH. only Mglolwasnot influential. Correlation values for Paywere 0.79 (tree ba-sal area). 0.84 (tree frequency) and 0.89 (seedling); for Ktol'0.76 (tree basal area) and 0.75 (seedling); CE<=tot>0.77 (treebasal area), 0.96 (tree frequency) and 0.91 (seedling); Nlol•0.7 (seedling); PIOI>0.76 (seedling) and piI. 0.76 (seedling).CECloland Payshowed very strong correlation with respec-tive Ifl Ivalues ranging from 0.77 to 0.96 and 0.79 to0.89.The ordination diagrams for both trees and regenerationconsistently showed Seraya's adaptation to lower nutrientstatus relative to that of Tembaga. Thus Seraya trees andseedlings were shown to tolerate topographic sites with lowerP, K and CEC. In addition, Seraya regeneration was alsoadapted to lower N status and more acidic soil. To some ex-t~nt the distribution pattern of Seraya observed in the hilldipterocarp forest of inland mountain massif in PeninsulaM~l.aysia,as with the Berembun site, may be attributed to itsability.to adapt to low nu.trientstatus and acidic soil. The ag-~regatJ~n of Ser~ya.on n.dge an~ upper slope positions, andItSpossible association Withnutrient stress is well reported in~e literature (Lim, 19_79;Wan Yusuf, 1979). A topographicndge~valley catena exists with nutrient fertility gradually in-creasing towards the valley and soil acidity in reverse, thelong-term ~ffec~of gravitational soil erosion and leaching. Ina coastal hill dipterocarp forest in Pasir Panjang Forest Re-s~rve, N~gri Sembilan S.tate,Z.ahari (1994) showed the sig-nificant influence of soil nutnent and acidity in effectingSeraya's dominance. The species' dominance pattern how-ever did not show strong topographic association but tends tobe more 'mosaic' in nature. Seraya was strongly correlatedwith sites low in P and CEC levels and more acidic soilsrelative to Tembaga. Regeneration was however unaffectedby soil nutrient. The possibility of limiting P and N levelsexerting influence on the growth and distribution of trees hasalso been suggested by Raaimakers (1994) for acid sandysoils in tropical rain forests of Guyana. For the hill diptero-carp forest in Peninsular Malaysia, results from Zahari(1994) and this study showed evidence of the strong influ-ence of soil nutrient and acidity on the distribution of treespecies. The two study areas represent contrasting ecosys-tems. Pasir Panjang is coastal. isolated and marginal whileBerembun is far inland and is part of the normative hilI dip-terocarp forest of the Main Range. Despite the wide varia-tions to be expected from disjunct distributions the influenceof P and CEC on the tree vegetation is however common toboth sites although the influence of nutrients and acidity onregeneration was only evident in the inland Berembun site.ConclusionsThe study in the inland hilI dipterocarp forest in BerembunForest Reserve has shown the importance of CECIOhPlOt>Pavo~Ol and soil pH in influencing tree distribution. Seraya treesappear more tolerant of lower Ptol,Kloland CEClolthan Tern-baga. Similar tolerance pattern was also shown by Seraya re-generation. In addition Seraya seedlings were also betteradapted to more acidic soils.ReferencesLim, Y.K. 1979. Effect of topography on stand structure, composi-tion and regeneration in a virgin hill dipterocarp forest. (Unpub-lished) B.Sc. Forestry thesis. 1979. Universiti Pertanian Malay-sia. 12Opp.Raaimakers, D. 1994. Growth of tropical rain forest trees as depend-ent on phosphorus supply: Tree saplings differing in regenerationstrategy and their adaptations to a low phosphorous environmentin Guyana. Tropenbos Series II, Wageningen, The Netherlands.97pp.Ter Braak, C.J.F. 1986. Canonical correspondence analysis: a neweigenvector technique for multivariate direct gradient analysis.Ecology: 1167-1179.Wan Yusuf, W.A. 1979. A study of soil properties along topographicgradient in Seraya (Shorea curtisii) ridge forest. UnpublishedB.Sc. thesis.1979. Universiti Pertanian Malaysia. 68pp.Zahari, S. 1994. Soil nutrient and species pattern for selected speciesin hill dipterocarp forest. Unpublished B.Sc. thesis. 1994. Univer-siti Perranian Malaysia. p. 56.Supported by IRPA Grant 01-02-04-0181125

Species distribution in the hill dipterocarp forest in Peninsular Malaysia as affected by soil nutrients

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Species distribution in the hill dipterocarp forest in Peninsular Malaysia as affected by soil nutrients

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