Earticle

The endangered species of Cyathea spinulosa (tree ferns) are among the least concerned ferns of Nepal that bring threats to them and their habitat. A way to reduce such threats is by maintaining a database of species’ whereabouts and generating a scientific understanding the habitat preferences. This will eventually help in the formulation of conservation plans for the species. This research aimed to characterize the suitable habitat of C. spinulosa by enumerating the location of species in the Panchase Forests of central Nepal. The statistical index method was applied to relate the occurrence locations of species with various environmental factors for the development of indices. The suitable habitat of C. spinulosa (more and most suitable categories) covered 119 km2 and accounted for 43% of the total area studied. 74.4% of occurrence locations of C. spinulosa were recorded from these habitats. The habitat characteristics suitable for C. spinulosa were: proximity to streams (high moisture), land covered by forested area (shady area), mid-elevations of hills about 1,000 m to 2,000 m (sub-tropical climate), slope gradient of 20° to 40° (steep slopes), and northern to eastern aspects. These habitat characteristics could be considered for in-situ protection of tree ferns and designating the conservation plots.

Little is known of the life history of Garcinia kola; the objective of this study, therefore, was to assess the fruiting age and tree size of the species in a coastal humid tropical climate plantation condition. A total 103 trees were used in the study viz; 80 ten-year-old trees at reproductive maturity onset and 13 thirty-year-old trees with several cycles of reproduction that constitute two independent variables. Data collected were age of onset of flowering and size at reproductive maturity onset. Relative size at reproductive maturity onset (RSOM) was estimated as size at reproductive maturity onset (SOM) divided by asymptotic maximal size (AMS). Data analysis was conducted using pairwise t-test and principal component analysis (PCA). Reproductive maturity onset (flowering) was recorded in the ten-year-old stand eight (8) years after planting. Mean size at reproductive maturity onset (SOM) was height 5.32±1.7 m, dbh 0.11±0.03 m, total number of branches was 29.6±7.3, crown depth 5.24±1.05 m, crown diameter was 4.78±0.7 m, branch diameter 0.098±0.01 m, leaf length 0.13±0.02 m, leaf breadth 0.37±0.01 m, twig length 0.35±0.11 m and leaf per twig 6±0.84 and asymptotic maximal size (AMS) was height 19.85±0.76 m, dbh 0.95±0.09 m, total number of branches 62±5, crown depth 18.83±0.7 m, crown diameter 12.5±1.64 m, branch diameter 0.5±1.6 m, leaf length 0.16±0.023 m, leaf breadth 0.45±0.12 m, twig length 0.37±0.11 m and leaf per twig 19±7.5. Pairwise t-test analysis showed there was significant differences between SOM and AMS in all growth factors except leaf length, leaf breadth, and twig length. Highest relative size at reproductive maturity onset (RSOM) was recorded in leaf length 0.82, twig length 0.82, and leaf breadth 0.80, while, the lowest was branch diameter 0.11. Four components out of the total of eleven were extracted to explain the relationship in RSOM: Principal component one (PC1) explained 37.23%; PC2 26.4%, PC3 22.73%, and PC4 13.64%.

Due to the multiple ecosystem benefits that iconic large, old growth trees provide, forest managers are applying thinning treatments around these legacy trees to improve their vigor and reduce mortality, especially in the face of climate change and other forest health threats. One objectives of this study was to analyze sub-hourly stem fluctuations of legacy ponderosa (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. Ex P. & C. Laws) and sugar pines (Pinus lambertiana Dougl.) in the mixed-conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada in multiple different radius thinning treatments to assess the short-term effects of these treatments. Thinning treatments applied were: R30C0 (9.1 m radius), R30C2 (9.1 m radius leaving 2 competitors), and RD1.2 (radius equaling DBH multiplied by 1 ft/in multiplied by 1.25). The other objective was to assess climatic drivers of hourly stem fluctuations. Using the dendrometeR package, we gathered daily statistics (i.e. daily amplitude) of the stem fluctuations, as well as stem cycle statistics such as duration and magnitude of contraction, expansion, and stem radial increment. We then performed correlation analyses to assess the climatic drivers of stem fluctuations and to determine which radial thinning treatment was most effective at improving growth. We found an important role that mean solar radiation, air temperature, and relative humidity play in stem variations of both species. One of the main findings from a management perspective was that the RD1.2 treatment group allowed both species to contract less on warmer and higher solar radiation days. Furthermore, sugar pine put on more stem radial increment on higher solar radiation days. These findings suggest that the extended radius RD1.2 thinning treatment may be the most effective at releasing legacy sugar and ponderosa pine trees compared to the other forest management treatments applied.

The successful restoration program requires a comprehensive understanding of variables influencing seedling efficiency. Below-ground is hypothesized to have a major impact on seedling performance of species when planted in agriculture, and degraded areas with different types of mulching. This study investigated on Sg. Terla Forest Reserve in Cameron Highlands Pahang, Malaysia. In this study randomized complete block design (RCBD) was used. The excavation method was applied to study the root system development, above, and below ground biomass distributions under different types of mulching: coconut mulching (CM), oil palm mulching (OM), plastic mulching (PM) and control (CK). The root diameter, main root length, lateral root length, root coiling, and root direction toward to sun were recorded. The results in this study indicate that mulching had significant effect on root diameter, main root length, and root distributions among treatments while for lateral root length, root: shoot ratio, dry biomass distributions, and above and below ground biomass did not showed significant effect among treatments. The highest values for root diameter, lateral root length, main root length, root distributions, dry biomass distributions and above and below ground biomass were showed in CM treatments. However 75% of root coiling was observed in seedlings between treatments.

Climate change and invasive alien plant species (IAPs) are having a significant impact on mountain ecosystems. The combination of climate change and socio-economic development is exacerbating the invasion of IAPs, which are a major threat to biodiversity loss and ecosystem functioning. Species distribution modelling has become an important tool in predicting the invasion or suitability probability under climate change based on occurrence data and environmental variables. MaxEnt modelling was applied to predict the current suitable distribution of most noxious weed A. adenophora (Spreng) R. King and H. Robinson and analysed the changes in distribution with the use of current (year 2000) environmental variables and future (year 2050) climatic scenarios consisting of 3 representative concentration pathways (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) in Bhutan. Species occurrence data was collected from the region of interest along the road side using GPS handset. The model performance of both current and future climatic scenario was moderate in performance with mean temperature of wettest quarter being the most important variable that contributed in model fit. The study shows that current climatic condition favours the A. adenophora for its invasion and RCP 2.6 climatic scenario would promote aggression of invasion as compared to RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 climatic scenarios. This can lead to characterization of the species as preferring moderate change in climatic conditions to be invasive, while extreme conditions can inhibit its invasiveness. This study can serve as reference point for the conservation and management strategies in control of this species and further research.