7 Ecologically, A. scholaris also plays an important role in the forest
succession processes. It is a pioneer species which is easy to propagate and is able to grow in many types of soil. Therefore, it will occupy the most
degraded forests for the first phase of succession. It has been managed as a fuel wood species in Sri Lanka under a short coppice rotation of 6-8 years.
In a social forestry planting in India, the species reached 3.6 m height and 10 cm diameter at 3.5 years in mixed species. In plantations in Taiwan, it
reached an average of 23.5 m in height and 51 cm dbh in 18 years. A maximum of 35 m in height and 109 cm dbh was attained at 41 years of age
[2]. Even, A. scholaris is very promising tree species in term of its growth ability,
wood properties, chemical content and pharmaceutical impacts, the understanding of this species is very limited mostly due to limited number
of researchers studied this species. The objectives of this research are to analyze the distribution pattern and dimension of A. scholaris which
naturally grow in different forest ecosystems and to study the forest composition and species diversity of forest ecosystem where of A. scholaris
naturally grows.
2. Materials and Methods
The study had been conducted in three ecosystems types in Jambi Province namely close to primary forest, secondary forest and jungle rubber. Two
replications for each ecosystem had been applied which were taken from two landscapes namely Bukit Dua belas National Park BDNP and Senami
Forest. One hectare of plot had been studied which were chosen based on purposive sampling with the presence of A. scholaris as the indicator. Six
hectares of plot size was for overall study area. All trees above 10 cm had been recorded for their local name, diameter and height. The position of
each sample tree had been plot in the millimeter block paper.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Forest composistion and species diversity
The species diversity and abundance of trees were varied also among ecosystems. The highest species diversity was in the forest of the Bukit
duabelas followed by secondary forest also in the Bukit duabelas NP. The number of trees of Senami forest was less compared to both ecosytems. It
is also an indication that forest ecosystem in the Senami region was much more disturbed compared to Bukit duabelas NP. Data on species number,
8 number of climax and pioneer species, presenceness of A. scholaris
indicated also the same phenomenon. However, the number of species in the forest and secondary forest ecosystems in both regions were still high
enough Table 1. As described by Collins [15] that at least 50 and up to 200 different tree species could be found in one hectare of a tropical rain
forest. Rain forests are often very structurally diverse. Even primary rain forest,
which had not been logged, farmed or otherwise disturbed by humans, had numerous gaps due to the death of large old trees. These gaps are often
caused by natural causes such as lightning strikes, windfalls, landslides, cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes and tornadoes, which occur regularly along
the equatorial belt. Plants re-colonize the gap while others invade in competition with them. This will result in a secondary succession of several
plant communities until a community similar to the original is restored [16]. Table 1. Forest composition and species diversity of three different forest
ecosystems
No Parameters
Ecosystem Types Close to Primary
Forest CPF Secondary Forest
SF Jungle Rubber JR
Senami BDNP Senami
BDNP Senami
BDNP 1 Number of trees
493 556
234 551
296 241
2 Number of Species 57
70 69
64 36
44 3 Pioneer species
35 28
46 35
25 28
4 Climax Forest species 22
42 23
29 11
16 5 Percentage of Pioneer
species 61.40
40.00 66.67
54.69 69.44
63.64 6 Average Diameter cm
21.73 22.46
23.85 21.27
21.88 21.77
7 Average Height m 10.99
11.42 10.70
11.98 11.88
11.80 8 Basal Area m2
20.83 26.67
12.81 21.19
12.21 9.92
9 Volume m3 163.62 200.08
87.64 141.60
81.71 67.08
3.2. Distribution pattern and dimension of A. scholaris
The number of A. scholaris in the research sites that have been found was varied among ecosystems. Many A. scholaris could be found in the
secondary forest in Senami while it was absent near the Close to Primary Forest CPF of Bukit Duabelas National Park BDNP. This finding proved
that A. scholaris is light demanding species and only able to grow in the area where most of giants and big trees are absent. Further investigation
showed that A. scholaris could be found in all ecosystems except CPF in BDNP with the highest dominancy in the CPF of Senami with the value of
0.02840 followed by in Jungle Rubber JR of BDNP and Secondary Forest
9 SF in Senami. The density value of A. scholaris varied among the
ecosystems. The highest value was 0.0940 which could be found in SF followed by CPF in Senami and JR in BDNP. The total volume with the
highest of 12.32 m3ha and frequency of 22 trees per hectare could be found SF in Senami. The mean diameter of A. scholaris varied from 17.86 cm to
31.18 cm that could be found in JR and SF in Senami respectively while the tallest A. scholaris could be found in SF of Senami with the height of 10.50
m followed by JR in BDNP with the height of 10.40 m See Table 2. Table 2. Distribution pattern and dimension of A. scholaris growing in
different forest ecosystem types
Ecosystem types
Diameter cm
Height m
Basal Area m
2
V m
3
Frequency Relative Density
Dominancy CPF
– S 23.54
8.92 0.6200
3.79 13
0.0264 0.02840
SF – S
31.18 10.50
1.9319 12.32
22 0.0940
0.15033 JR
– S 20.88
10.13 0.3080
1.75 8
0.0143 0.01186
CPF-BDNP 0.00
0.00 0.0000
0.00 0.0000
0.00000 SF-BDNP
17.86 7.71
0.2142 0.87
7 0.0127
0.01010 JR-BDNP
28.60 10.40
0.3477 2.13
5 0.0207
0.02487
The Table 2 showed that the A. scholaris was more dominant and had better dimension in Senami landscape compared to BDNP landscape. As
described before, A. scholaris plays an important role in the forest succession processes. It is a pioneer species which is easy to propagate and
able to grow in many types of soil therefore, it will occupy the most degraded forests for the first phase of succession [2].
Acknowledgements
The study was funded by Start-Up Funding Collaborative Research Centre CRC 990EFForTS Project 2013.
4. References
[1] Danida Forest Seed Centre. 2000. Seed leaflet. Alstonia scholaris. [2] World Agroforestry Centre. 2012. Agro forestry tree database, A tree
species reference
and selection
guide. ICRAF.
http: www.worldagroforestry.org. Accessed on April 12
th
, 2012. [3] I. Muslimin, A.H. Lukman. 2006. Pola Pertumbuhan Pulai Darat
Alstonia Angustiloba Miq Di Kabupaten Musi Rawas Sumatera Selatan Makalah Penunjang pada Ekspose Hasil-hasil Penelitian:
Konservasi dan Rehabilitasi Sumberdaya Hutan. Padang, 20 September 2006.
