COMMUNITY STRUCTURE AND ECOLOGICAL STATUS OF RIPARIAN IN UPSTREAM CITARIK TAMAN BURU MASIGIT KAREUMBI (TBMK) WATERSHED, WEST JAVA

• Main Author: Farahnaz, Ibtisani
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Ilmu hayati ; Biologi
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/39048
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The riparian zone is a buffer zone between terrestrial ecosystems and river ecosystems. It plays an important role in maintaining the quality of the river and the diversity of flora and fauna within the ecosystem. The upstream area of Citarik watershed functions as a conservation area as well as a water source for people living in Taman Buru Masigit Kareumbi (TBMK) area, West Java. The area has an important value in being a part of the upstream river continuum of the Citarum River. At present, the upstream riparian function of the Citarik watershed has decreased due to land conversion. Therefore, various efforts are needed to maintain this area to prevent a declining quality of the Citarum River. This study aims to determine the vegetation community structure and ecological status of the upstream riparian of Citarik watershed. The study was conducted at the upstream area of the Citarik watershed, TBMK, comprising of five sites which experienced land conversion: site 1 (vegetable fields), site 2 (bamboo forest), sites 3 and 4 (deer cages 28 and 8 hectares), and site 5 (tourist area). Vegetation community structure was analyzed based on Important Value Index (INP), Shannon-Wiener diversity Index, and Simpson Domination Index, obtained from 6 nesting plots on each site (3 plots each on the left and right of the river). The Riparian ecological status is determined by the QBR Index approach (Munne et. al., 2003) based on the sum of scores from four aspects of assessment. This includes total vegetation cover, structure of vegetation cover, quality of vegetation cover, and river channel alteration. Total score ranges from 0-100, which is divided into five riparian ecological status categories. Through this study, 8 species of trees were obtained with the community name Pinus-Gigantochloa, 11 species of shrubs with the community name Clidemia-Chromolaena, and 15 species of herbs with the community name Ageratina-Molineria. The highest vegetation diversity index is found on site 1, which is the location of land conversion to become vegetable fields. The Riparian ecological status in upstream Citarik watershed, based on its QBR index is as follows; sites 1, 2, and 4 are of moderate quality, with moderate disturbances (scores 60 - 65), and sites 3 and 5 are classified as poor quality with high disturbances (score 50).