Rehabilitation of disturbed coastal forest using selected tree species at Pantai Nenasi, Pekan, Pahang

• Main Author: Ellias, Nur Farhani
• Format: Project Paper Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/91018/1/FH%202018%2030%20IR.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/91018/
• Institution: Universiti Putra Malaysia

Rehabilitation programmes that have been conducted to recover the degraded ecosystem can fully achieve its objective if planning is being done properly. The selection of tree species must suit its function to the rehabilitation objective. A study was conducted at the coastal forest of Pantai Nenasi, Pekan, Pahang with the aims to investigate the suitable species combinations for rehabilitation of disturbed coastal forest and the effectiveness of shelter applied. The study consisted of six plots with three tree species planted randomly. In three plots, seedlings were sheltered by a net of 1 m x 1m x 1m fence while seedlings for the three species for other three plots were not sheltered. Each tree was planted at spacing 4 m x 4m and plot consisted of 30 trees from the 3 species. Total seedlings planted were 180 but 145 seedlings survived. The three species combination were Casuarina equsetifolia, Syzygium grande and Calophyllum inophyllum. Diameter and height growth data were recorded for 1-year study period. Based on One-way ANOVA result, there were highly significant differences in height but diameter increment of tree species were not significant differences at (p<0.05). Post-hoc tests showed only C. equisetifolia had highly significant difference on height and diameter (p<0.05) compared to the other two species while there was no significant difference between C. inophyllum and S. grande on height and diameter (p>0.05). While due to the independent sample t-tests, there was highly significant difference between shelter treatment on height (p<0.05) while there was no significant difference between shelter treatment on diameter (p>0.05). This study indicated that this three species are suitable to be used in other rehabilitation effort on coastal dune area due to the trees are well-adapted to the environment. The shelter treatment creates more desirable condition compared to non-shelter treatment.