1Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
2Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Sarawak, Malaysia
This study analyses the floristic similarity between the four major forest ecosystems of Bengoh Catchment. The four major forest ecosystems encompass of primary forest, old secondary forest, young secondary forest and agroforestry. The similarity values (Si) between the different types of forest ecosystem of Bengoh catchment were calculated using the Jaccard's index of similarity. The similarity value (Si) indicates that the highest value shown by the combination of agroforestry and young secondary forest (0.036) followed by primary forest and old secondary forest (0.034). The combination of Primary forest and young secondary forest, old secondary forest and young secondary forest, agroforestry and old secondary forest exhibits slightly lower degree of similarity with the value of 0.017, 0.014 and 0.019 respectively. The similarity value between the four major forest ecosystems of Bengoh Catchment range from 0.014 to 0.036 which is floristically low in similarity indicating heterogeneity in the species composition of the forest. The low in similarity value is attributed to the removal of the original vegetation due to anthropogenic activities such as selective logging, swedden agriculture and farming.
floristic, similarity, anthropogenic, forest, ecosystem, Bengoh Catchment
