Assessment of biophysical properties of Royal Belum tropical forest, Malaysia
- Publication Type:
- Journal Article
- Citation:
- Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 2018, 39 (1), pp. 90 - 106
- Issue Date:
- 2018-01-01
Closed Access
| Filename | Description | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanniah_et_al-2018-Singapore_Journal_of_Tropical_Geography.pdf | Published Version | 1.13 MB |
Copyright Clearance Process
- Recently Added
- In Progress
- Closed Access
This item is closed access and not available.
© 2017 Department of Geography, National University of Singapore and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd The Royal Belum forest reserve is one of the oldest tropical rainforests in the world and it is one of the largest virgin forest reserves in Malaysia. However, not many studies have been conducted to understand the ecology of this forest. In this study we estimated the aboveground biomass (AGB) of the forest using diameter at breast height (DBH) and height of trees (h), tree species and hemispherical photographs of tree canopy. We estimated AGB using five allometric equations. Our results demonstrated that the AGB given by the one tree species specific allometric equation does not show any significant differences from the values given by the non-tree species specific allometric equations at tree and plot levels. The AGB of Intsia bijuga species, Koompassia malaccensis species and Shorea genera were comparatively higher, owing to their greater wood density, DBH and h. This has added importance because some of these species are categorized as threatened species. Our results demonstrated that mean AGB values in this forest (293.16 t ha-1) are the highest compared to some studies of other areas in Malaysia, tropical Africa and tropical Bazilian Amazonia, implying that the Royal Belum forest reserve, is an important carbon reservoir.
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: