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Habitats suitable for the establishment of Shorea curtisii seedlings in a hill forest in Peninsular Malaysia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2010

Tsutomu Yagihashi*
Affiliation:
Tohoku Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI), Morioka, Iwate 020-0123, Japan
Tatsuya Otani
Affiliation:
Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, 1-1 Owashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8686, Japan
Naoki Tani
Affiliation:
Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences, 1-1 Owashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8686, Japan
Tomoki Nakaya
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Ritsumeikan University, 56-1 Tojiin-kita-machi, Kita-ku, Kyoto 603-8577, Japan
Kassim Abd Rahman
Affiliation:
Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kepong 52109 Selangor, Malaysia
Tetsuya Matsui
Affiliation:
Hokkaido Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Sapporo 062-8516, Japan
Hiroyuki Tanouchi
Affiliation:
Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8687, Japan
*
1Corresponding author. Email: yagihasi@affrc.go.jp

Extract

Trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae dominate the emergent canopy of most lowland rain forests in Asia (Ashton et al. 1988). The family is, therefore, one of the most ecologically important in South-East Asia. Shorea curtisii Dyer ex King is the most common tree species in the hill dipterocarp forests of Peninsular Malaysia (Burgess 1975, Symington 2004), and is considered a key species for the dynamics of such forests. Currently, most Malaysian hill forests are selectively logged. Trees over 50 cm dbh are harvested, and any subsequent harvests depend on the remaining smaller trees. Such selective logging takes no account of seedling regeneration. Hence, subsequent timber harvests rely on trees derived from the seedlings that are already present and future seeds produced by the residual trees (Appanah & Mohd. Rasol 1994). Existing seedlings of S. curtisii in the forest, therefore, play a significant role in the dynamics of the hill forest. However, the conditions that constitute a suitable habitat for S. curtisii seedling establishment and survival remain unknown.

Type
Short Communication
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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