Structure and floristics of tropical forests and their implications for restoration of degraded forests of China's Hainan Island

摘要

We compared vegetation structure and floristics among degraded tropical secondary forests on China's Hainan Island, representing two successional stages (SF1 and SF2), and a primary forest to provide information that would support restoration process. We observed no significant differences in total tree density among the forest types, but the total basal area was significantly higher in primary forest. Stem size class distribution differed significantly between the primary and secondary forests, but the two secondary forests did not differ significantly. SF1 was dominated by Macaranga denticulata and SF2 by Cratoxylon ligustrinum, whereas the primary forest by Engelhardtia chrysolepis. The Simpson and Shannon diversity indices were greater for primary forest than for secondary forests. Jaccard's similarity coefficient and the Morisita-Horn index indicated greater similarity between the two secondary forests and the lowest similarity between SF1 and the primary forest. Understanding the structural and floristic characteristics of different successional stages is important for managing forest restoration process.