Botanical Diversity at Savura, a Lowland Rain Forest Site along the PABITRA Gateway Transect, Viti Levu, Fiji

Keppel, Gunnar; Navuso, J.; Naikatini, Alifereti; Thomas, Nunia T.; Rounds, Isaac; Osborne, Tamara; Batinamu, Nemani; Senivasa, Eliki

doi:10.1353/psc.2005.0021

Cited by 21 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…In comparison, the density of similarly sized stems per ha are 519 in Mudumalai, India (Sukumar et al 1992), 3,344 in Las Tuxtlas, Mexico (Bongers et al 1988), 4,707 in Barro Colorado Island, Panama (Leigh 1999), 6,590 in Korup National Park, southwest Cameroon (Kenfack et al 2007) and 6,702 in Pasoh, Malayan Peninsula (Condit et al 1996). Few sites have higher densities, for example, Fiji with 9,156 stems per ha (Keppel et al 2005). Mauritius wet forests thus have an exceptionally high density of stems C 1 cm, even after having sustained a degree of degradation by invasive alien plants.…”

Section: Tree Density and Basal Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Surviving 370 years of human impact: what remains of tree diversity and structure of the lowland wet forests of oceanic island Mauritius?

et al. 2012

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Mauritius, a 1,865 km 2 oceanic island within the Madagascar and Indian Ocean islands biodiversity hotspot may be regarded as reflecting what awaits many tropical oceanic islands owing to the extreme levels of transformation resulting from over 370 years of human presence. The island has an urgent need to conserve its surviving remnants of native terrestrial habitats. There, however, exists little published quantitative information like species diversity, stem density and basal area in these habitats and other essential parameters for informing their conservation. We surveyed woody native plants in five of the best preserved lowland wet forests using 75 random plots of 100 m 2 (totalling 0.75 ha). Density, dominance and frequency values were calculated along with species and family importance values for each site. For plants C1 cm diameter at breast height, 108 species in 66 genera and 39 families were represented by 6,000 individual plants. This gives a density of 8,000 plants per ha which is very high for a lowland wet tropical forest. Species endemism within the plots was 63 % to Mauritius and 87 % to the Mascarenes. Some 56 % of all woody native species ever recorded from the lowland wet forest of Mauritius was sampled. Extrapolated basal area varied from 31 to 49.1 m 2 per ha. The mean similarity in species between pairs of sites was about 60 %. Mauritian wet forests retain the highest tree diversity in the Mascarenes, and probably among all isolated oceanic islands around the world despite massive habitat destruction, extraction and invasion by alien species. Substantial conservation importance and restoration potential still exist.

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Section: Tree Density and Basal Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Surviving 370 years of human impact: what remains of tree diversity and structure of the lowland wet forests of oceanic island Mauritius?

et al. 2012

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“…There have been no studies on the ecology of this species, so the regeneration requirements are not known. Our interpretation of some previous botanical surveys ( Kirkpatrick and Hassall 1981, 1985, Keppel et al 2005) is that it may be found principally in unmodified forest, but Whistler (2004) described it as common in disturbed foothill and montane forest. Trichospermum richii appears to be more common on Ta'u than on Tutuila Fa'aumu 1999, Webb et al 1999).…”

Section: Forest Structurementioning

confidence: 78%

Composition and Structure of Lowland Rain-Forest Tree Communities on Ta'u, American Samoa

Webb¹,

Bult²,

Chutipong³

et al. 2006

Pacific Science

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This study examined the composition and structure of tropical rain forest in four permanent plots on the island of Ta'u, American Samoa. Two 1-ha plots were established in coastal forest, one in an abandoned coastal cultivation site (a ''plantation'' ca. 17 yr post-abandonment) and another in a Dysoxylum samoense-dominated coastal forest. Two 2-ha plots were established in lowland forest at 200-250 m elevation, one in an abandoned plantation (ca. 13 yr postabandonment) and the other in less-disturbed mid-to late-secondary mixed lowland forest. In the total 6 ha, we encountered 54 tree species, with Dysoxylum samoense the most dominant species overall and abundant in all four plots. The upper forest plot was the most diverse plot and exhibited low similarity with any of the other three plots. This plot exhibited a rarefaction curve similar to those of four lowland hill forest plots on Tutuila but was most similar in composition to regenerating disturbed forest on Tutuila rather than mature, less-disturbed forest. Low similarity was found between the two Dysoxylum-dominated coastal forests and the Dysoxylum-Pometia-dominated Ottoville lava flow forest on Tutuila. By examining the populations of D. samoense across the four plots we found an impact of agriculture and cyclones on height structure of the forest. Examination of species' diameter class distributions allowed us to propose several hypotheses related to the life histories of several tree species. We documented the natural establishment of the introduced species Flueggea flexuosa into both abandoned plantations and natural forest. Monitoring these plots over time will allow us to better understand successional processes in natural and human-impacted forest including changes in composition, structure, relative abundance of nonnative species, as well as the impact of cyclones on different forest types.Forest covers more than half the surface of the five main islands of American Samoa.Lowland rain forest, occurring from sea level to 350-500 m elevation, is the most widespread forest type on the Islands, differentiated into several habitat types including coastal, ridge, valley, slope, and lava flow forests (Whistler 2002). These habitat types are a function of topographical position , with the exception of lava flow forest, which is formed on relatively flat, young lava flows (Whistler 1980(Whistler , 2002.The island of Ta'u is located approximately 100 km east of Tutuila, at 169 28 0 W, 14 14 0 S. It is a small (39 km 2 ) shield volcano formed over a geologic hot spot that formed the entire Samoan Archipelago. Ta'u is the youngest of the high islands of the Samoan Island chain, being formed approximately 300,000 yr B.P. (Nunn 1998 activity of one large volcano (Lata Volcano), two smaller lava volcanoes, Tunoa Volcano and Luatele Volcano, contributed lava flows to the northwestern and northeastern corners of the island. On the south side of the island, steep cliffs from Lata summit (960 m above sea level) to the sea are the inner walls of the caldera...

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“…We investigated only a single habitat (lowland rain forest), the fresh baits were exposed for a single duration (1 month), and a narrow range of bait species (12) was used compared with the number of tree species present in the forest (Keppel et al 2005). Using more (or different) species of baits, allowing longer exposures, examining different decay stages of the timber, and by collecting in different native and plantation forests, we would undoubtedly extend our knowledge of host use of Fijian cer ambycids.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The climate may be best described as tropical wet to superwet (Richards 1996). Topography is very uneven with steep slopes and ridges (Keppel et al 2005). The reserve was established in 1963 and comprises 396.5 ha.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Patterns of Tree Species Usage by Long-Horned Beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in Fiji

et al. 2014

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Botanical Diversity at Savura, a Lowland Rain Forest Site along the PABITRA Gateway Transect, Viti Levu, Fiji

Cited by 21 publications

References 9 publications

Surviving 370 years of human impact: what remains of tree diversity and structure of the lowland wet forests of oceanic island Mauritius?

Surviving 370 years of human impact: what remains of tree diversity and structure of the lowland wet forests of oceanic island Mauritius?

Composition and Structure of Lowland Rain-Forest Tree Communities on Ta'u, American Samoa

Patterns of Tree Species Usage by Long-Horned Beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in Fiji

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