The impact of ecological factors on plant diversity in Ben En National Park Student: Le Duc Anh; Advisor: Hoang Van Sam 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENT First and foremost, in order to complete the training program and to assess student’s the results of learning as well as making the condition for student in investigation and scientific research, I have conducted the thesis under the permission of the Vietnam Forestry University, the Faculty of Forest and Environment Management with thesis’ name: The impact of selected ecological factors on plant diversity in Ben En National Park in Thanh Hoa Province. In particular, I would like extend my grateful thanks to both my supervisor, including: Assoc. Hoang Van Sam and Dr. They have supported me throughout the research process as well as during the period of completing the thesis.
Besides, I would also like to thank Dr. Lee Macdonald who comes from professor Colorado State University in judging and fixing the controversial issue in my thesis. Last but not least, I sincerely thank for the board of directors and staff in Ben En National Park helped me to deal with this topic. Eventually, this is initially familiar with scientific research and as the results of poor experiments which lead to get the unavoidable errors.
I look forward to receiving suggestion from teachers and friends. 2 ABSTRACT The thesis have provide the fundamental information in the plant species diversity and vegetation types as well as some factors influencing on the plant diversity in Ben En National Park. The thesis recorded about 363 vascular plant species belonging to 70 different families. Besides, there are two main types of vegetation which witnessed in National Park, including moist tropical evergreen and secondary lowland limestone forests, moist tropical evergreen lowland forests and secondary forest after mining on other soils with heavily and slightly disturbed subtypes illustrating the impact of human activities on.
In terms of the first vegetation type, it consist of some subtypes which are slightly disturbed, heavily disturbed and shrub-land on lime stone, while the second main one is tropical evergreen lowland forest on other soils with slightly disturbed forest on ferralitic or alluvial soil, heavily disturbed forest on ferralitic soil and shrub-land on ferralitic soil. Moreover, there are plenty of high conservation species living in Ben En National Park, among which I have found and recognized a number of 7 species are listed in the Red list of IUCN (2015) and 9 species belong to the Red data Book of Vietnam (Ban 2007) as well as many plant species are in the face of extinction. Last by not least, the overview of the impact of ecological factors on the plant diversity in the distribution and the development showed up in this thesis with some such dominant ecological factors as: the canopy cover, shrub and herb cover and the elevation. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLE INTRODUCTION.
OBJECTIVES, SCOPES OF THE STUDY AND METHODOLOGY. Subjects and scope of research. Material inherited and preparation method. Field investigation method.
Non-field investigation method. Climate and Hydrology .Characteristics of social economy. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Vegetation types in Ben En National Park and its characteristics.
Moist Tropical evergreen in lowland limestone forests. Moist tropical evergreen lowland forests. Conservation of plant species status in Ben En National Park. The impact of some ecological factors on plant diversity in Ben En National Park.
Impact of elevation factor on plant diversity in Ben En National Park. Effect of the canopy cover to plant diversity. Effect of shrub and herb cover to plant diversity. 32 REFERENCE 5 LIST OF TABLE Table 4.
Fluctuation number of plant species and families by evelation in Ben En National Park. The relationship between elevation and the index. Familiar level in species composition in vegetation structure among different altitude. The impact of canopy cover on regeneration density.
the result of surveying shrub and herb layer. the impact of shrub and herbs cover on regeneration species. 31 6 INTRODUCTION It is universally acknowledged that tropical rainforests are terrestrial ecosystem on Earth illustrating the abundance of species diversity, but nowadays, we are witnessing about the disappearance of species at a dizzying pace because lands are renovated by timber, agriculture, and other uses (Fimbel et al. 2001; Meijaard et al.
Vietnam’s forests are extremely biodiverse (Thin 1997) and Vietnam is one of the nations ranked the 16 th in global bio-diverse (WCMC 1992). The abundance of plant diversity is one of the most characteristics in tropical rainforests, which cover less than 10% of the total land areas; there are more than 50 percent of earth’s plant species found in tropical rainforests (Wilson 1988; Mayaux et al. Unfortunately, the majority of Vietnam’s forests have significantly decreased during the last 60 years (Chien 2006). Around 6 million ha of tropical forests have been lost (Achard et al.
As a result, the forest cover witnessed a downward trend in 1985 and 1995 at 30 percent and 28 percent, respectively (Lung 2001; Hoang et al. In 1998, the Vietnamese government deployed the 5 million ha Reforestation Program with the aim of planning 5 million ha of forests in 2010 as well as restoring the cover of forest to reach of 43 percent (Lung 2001). Plants are the world’s biodiversity as well as demonstrating its essential resource on the earth (GSPC 2012). There are many thousands of wild plants used with the aim of economic and providing food, medicine, fuel shelter for humans around the world in over period of time.
The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity noted that: “Biological resources probably contribute into world’s economy and the poor’s demands at about 40 percent and 80 percent, respectively (Convention 2011). Also, the more life’s diversity, the more popular opportunity for medical discoveries, economic development and facing to such new challenges as: climate change. Unfortunately, many plant species are threatened by habitat transformation, over-exploitation, pollution and climate change. 1 Ben En National Park is known as the ecological complex of mountain, river, lake with more than 16.000ha of area and the plentiful plants and animals system.
It is homeland of the famous green ironwood in Vietnam. According to researching of scientists, Flora in this park includes 58 species were listed in IUCN Red Book, 46 species belongs to Viet Nam Red Book in 2007. The Red List species in Ben En National Park were identified based on the Red Data Book of Vietnam (IUCN 2006, Ban 2007) and their conservation status was assessed using the frequent appearance of species including trees and stump which is found during the field inventory (Hoang et al. Obviously, there are the plenty of research which related to the case of plant diversity in Vietnam.Although, there are several studies on the environmental characteristics, natural distribution of some such species as Erythrophloeumfordii, Melienthasuavis Pierre or Garciniafagraeoides, there is less research on the effect of ecological factors (topography, soil physical characteristics and human) to the distribution and the development of plants in Ben En National Park.
In recent decades, research on plants diversity has become more and more important. Protected areas contribute to the protection as well as conservation of the biodiversity and provide diverse public goals like socio-economic development. With the aim to study the impact of ecological factors on biodiversity of flora species in the study area, so I conducted this thesis: “The impact of ecological factors on plant diversity in Ben En National Park”. LITERATURE REVIEW Environmental factor or ecological factor or eco-factor is any factor, including abiotic or biotic influencing living organisms (Gilpin, A.
Abiotic factors are the non-living components of the ecosystem which play a critical role in biology of the ecosystem. There are several abiotic factors which exert huge impact on plants, namely: topography, temperature, light, moisture, soil nutrients, and the percentage of canopy cover. Normally, abiotic factors definitely influence on the distribution of plant diversity and its abundance (Hotra et. Besides, there are plenty of studies illustrated that abiotic environment factors, such as topographic parameters can cause changes of plant diversity (Bennie et al., 2006; Marini Lorenzo et al.
Grassland diversity is heavily affected by environment factors; e. soil and topography (Cristofoli, 2010; Marini Lorenzo et al. At least, since the 1890s, it is obvious that the local vegetation situation affected by the topography through the subject interactions which is recognized (Warming 1895). In terms of temperature, the vast majority of seedlings distribute to the forest with dark closed canopy condition, leading to the necessary of examining the impact of temperature on seedlings growth not only in bright conditions but also in dark conditions (Koi Takahashi et al.
Besides, according to (Yin et al. 2008) reported that seeds growth of Betula albo-sinensis rose in the warm condition with 0.510C higher than the ambient air condition. On the other hand, the biotic factors are living organisms including competing species, parasites, predators and humans or in other word macro- and micro- organisms (Muoghalu JI. Moreover, they will affect plant growth and development through different ways.
Specially, the morphology of plants is one of the genetic factor influenced by those organisms (Ben G. Certainly, human not only exerts positive and negative impact on the environment, humans but also have transformed 40–50% of the ice-free land surface, changing prairies, forests and wetlands into agricultural and urban systems (F. Stuart Chapin et al. 3 Plants are influenced by human activities which can change the interaction among species in the community (Huston 1994; Acharya 1999).
Habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation are currently the most important threats to biodiversity (Primack 1993). In contrast, a coin has two side, so human activities also have different influences on biodiversity (Putz et al. For instance, numerous studies have shown that although logging can cause numerous damage to the forest ecosystem, logged-over forests would maintain original biodiversity (Whitmore & Sayer 1992; Cannon et al. 1998; Meijaard et al.
Ecological factor plays a significant role for the ecological development as well as the biological diversity of species in the whole ecosystem. Fortunately, humans in general became increasingly concerned about the impact of environment on habitat. Viet Nam is not only one of the countries with one of the highest biodiversity in the world with plentiful source of natural ecosystem, but Viet Nam also contains many rare genes with a variety of endemic species due to the complexity of the terrain, climate, creating suitable conditions for various ecosystems. In addition, there is also evidence that environmental factors or ecological factors such as soil nutrients, canopy openness, slope and herb cover affect the distribution of tree species and forest composition (Duivenvoorden 1995, Potts et al.
Plant biodiversity in Vietnam There is a variety of diverse flora in Vietnam with around 28% of its total endemic species. Moreover, Vietnam is considered as one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world and the percentage of precious and endemic species of fauna and flora that probably are concentrated mostly in Vietnam. However, a few decades, there are the plenty of species recognized as endemic species in Vietnam and it also appears in 3 countries including China, Laos, or Thailand (Hoang et al. According to the statistics, Vietnam has 11,373 plant species that belong to 2524 genera , 378 families and 7 major plant groups (Table 2.
4 Besides, A few years later, according to some estimation illustrating the number of flora in Vietnam reach to 12,000 species (Thin 2000). A number of preliminary estimates offer figures of about 600 indigenous species of vascular plants in Vietnam (Tolmachev 1974; Nguyen Nghia Thin 1997; Phan Ke Loc 1998). The total number of species belongs to vascular plants known in Vietnam for the time being is about 10,350 species in 2,256 genera and 305 families (Phan Ke Loc 1998). Certainly, the flora of Vietnam is extremely diverse with ranging from general species to endemic species.