A STUDY OF THE UNDERGROWTH VEGETATION OF SEMPU ISLAND, EAST JAVA, INDONESIA
ABSTRACT: A study of forest
floor vegetation in coastal forest (site 1) and inland lowland forest (site 2)
was carried out at the Sempu Island Nature Reserve, Malang Regency, East Java.
The objective of the study is to obtain data on plant species diversity,
species composition and structure of the forest floor vegetation. In each site the
vegetation was sampled with a plot of 1 m × 50 m, which was divided into 50
subplots of 1 m × 1 m each. Overall from the two plots we recorded 59 species,
57 genera and 39 families. Shannon-Wienner diversity indices (H’) were relatively
high. i.e., 4.47 in Plot 1 and 3.2 in Plot 2, with a mean of 3.84. The number
of the seedlings of shrubs and trees was greater than that of the herbaceous
species. The families having the highest number of species were Euphorbiaceae
(6 species) and Fabaceae (5 species). Based on dominant species the vegetation
in Plot 1 was designated as Scleria lithosperma-Asystasia nemorum community
type, while in Plot 2 Pterospermum javanicumKnema sp. community type. The
similarity index between these community types was only 18%. Only P. javanicum showed
a good regeneration and the regeneration of other species in the two community
types was poor, indicating unclear floristic changes in the forest of the Sempu
Island.
Author: ASEP SADILI
Journal Code: jpbiologigg160002
