HOMOGENEITY OF NATURAL FORESTS AT THE STAND SCALE: EVIDENCES FROM A LUOI DISTRICT, THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCE, VIETNAM

Toai Minh Pham; Dien Pham Van

Volume : VI, Issue : VII, July - 2017

HOMOGENEITY OF NATURAL FORESTS AT THE STAND SCALE: EVIDENCES FROM A LUOI DISTRICT, THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCE, VIETNAM

Toai Minh Pham, Dien Pham Van

Abstract :

In order to identify homogeneity of natural forests at stand scale we selected and conducted a study on a natural forest vegetation in A Roang commune, A Luoi district, Thua Thien Hue province in North Central Coast region of Vietnam. The homogeneity character was assessed on 02 primary plots of 10,000m² each. In which, each primary plot was divided into 25 secondary plots of 400m² each. Four indicators reflecting the homogeneity of natural forest vegetation was tested including: (i) the relative distribution of tree stumps on forest floor; (ii) spatial pattern of canopy trees (DBH ≥ 10 cm) in the forest stands; (iii) the relative deviation of structure and growth factors of forest vegetation among secondary plots and (iv) aggregation of secondary plots bases on similarity levels. The results showed that, the primary plot 1 could be considered as one biological community with the similarity of 77% or lower while the primary plot 2 was two differently biological communities with the similarity of 70%. If similarity increases, the homogeneity of forest vegetation will be decreased. In general, it is difficult to find the forest vegetation which has absolutely homogeneity or if the similarity is required equal or greater than 90%.