Structure and Species Composition in Logged-over Swamp Forest, Bengkalis, Riau

¹ Department of Forestry, Faculty of Forestry, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Tri Dharma Ujung No. 1 Medan, North Sumatera, 20155, Indonesia
² Balai Besar Penelitian Dan Pengembangan Bioteknologi dan Pemuliaan Tanaman Hutan, Yogyakarta, 55582, Indonesia

Abstract

Peat swamp forest is a particularly stable ecosystem. This stability may regulate well-balanced water to maintain the existence of typical flora and fauna. The present study describes the structure and species composition from three different sites namely newly logged-over swamp forest, three years old logged-over swamp forest, and four years old-logged over swamp forest in Bengkalis, Riau, Indonesia. The study sites were predominated by four structural ensembles with their strata order from the highest to lowest: emergent trees, canopy, lower ensembles, and undergrowth. The emergent trees consisted of three tree species, and the canopy included four species, lower groups covered three species, and undergrowth had two species. Overall, the three sites composed of 26 species with 24 genera and 24 families. Dendrogram based on similarity of site index showed that newly and three years old logged-over forest joined into one cluster with Euclidean distance at 38.42. Furthermore, both sites joined with four years old logged over forest forming another cluster with 489.19 Euclidean distances. Present study, therefore, showing that four years old logged-over peat swamp forest turned out to have the greatest Euclidean distance value.