Comparison of diversity of nepenthaceae, orchidaceae and zingiberaceae in disturbed and undisturbed forests in Johor

• Main Author: Sivarajah, Vinod Kumar
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English; English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: TP248.13-248.65 Biotechnology
• Online Access: http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/8365/1/24p%20VINOD%20KUMAR%20SIVARAJAH.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/8365/2/VINOD%20KUMAR%20SIVARAJAH%20COPYRIGHT%20DECLARATION.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/8365/3/VINOD%20KUMAR%20SIVARAJAH%20WATERMARK.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/8365/

This study focused on the diversity of plants belonging to Nepenthaceae, Orchidaceae and Zingiberaceae occurring within the Belumut Forest-Eco Park, Mo’akil Permanent Reserve Forest and Soga-Perdana Permanent Reserve Forest. These three forest areas each have patches with varying degree of disturbance categorized as undisturbed, disturbed and recovered forest, respectively. The objectives of the study were, to compare the diversity of Nepenthaceae, Orchidaceae and Zingiberaceae family in the forest of varying degree of disturbances, to create and update a check list of plants belonging to the three study areas, and to determine the effect of disturbances on the diversity of the three families within the study areas. The sampling and data collection was done using line transect method (100 metre-long and 6 metre-wide). Specimens were tagged, GPS coordinates were taken, elevation plant description and habitat notes were documented. Belumut Forest-Eco Park and Mo’akil Permanent Reserve Forest recorded eight species of plants from only two families (three Orchidaceae species and five Zingiberaceae species for Belumut F-EP and two Nepenthaceae, two Orchidaceae and four Zingiberaceae for Mo’akil PRF). Soga-Perdana Permanent Reserve Forest recorded the lowest number of species with six species from all three families (one Nepenthaceae, one Orchidaceae and four Zingiberaceae species). Among the twenty species of plants recorded (three Nepenthaceae, five Orchidaceae and 12 Zingiberaceae species), two were endemic in Peninsular Malaysia which were Scaphochlamys johorensis collected from the Belumut Forest-Eco Park and S. endauensis collected from Mo’akil Permanent Reserve Forest. The Mo’akil Permanent Reserve Forest was the most diverse among the three study areas, showing that even with a smaller forest patch size, the number of individuals per species present will affect the diversity of an area. The Belumut Forest-Eco Park showed less diversity than the Mo’akil Permanent Reserve Forest due to S. johorensis being more numerous than all the other species within the study area.