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Geographic Information System Based Floral and Faunal Assessment of Alapang Communal Forest of Benguet, Philippines
Abstract
This study was conducted to assess the existing flora and fauna, and to develop a spatial map of Alapang communal forest located in the province of Benguet, Philippines. A total of 52 species belonging to 27 families were identified during the inventory in this communal forest using the quadrat method while a total of 30 species belonging to 18 families were recorded using line intercept technique for the assessment of grasses, herbs, vines and other low-lying vegetation. The diversity index of the species in Alapang communal forests using the quadrat method was 2.6649 while for the line intercept technique it was 2.5446. The most dominant species in this area was found to be Pinus kesiya Royle ex Gordon (Benguet pine) under Family Pinaceae with an importance value of 106.74%. In the faunal assessment, four species of birds and a small mammal particularly a rodent were identified during the study. Aside from the high species diversity of this communal forest, the presence of endemic and indicator species in the area denotes that this forest was still in good condition hence must be protected. Spatial maps and database system were generated based from data gathered in the field using Geographic Information System (GIS).
... The floral diversity of Alapang Communal Forest in this study present some interesting trends from an ecological and biodiversity points of view. Its species richness in this study (187) is much higher than the 52 species in the previous inventory of Lumbres et al., (2010). Also, the dominant families in the previous inventory were Lamiaceae, Moraceae, Phyllanthaceae, Caprifoliaceae, Meliaceae, Myrsinaceae, and Rubiaceae while families Asteraceae, Poaceae and Phyllanthaceae in this inventory. ...
... The dominance of Pinus kesiya in Alapang Communal Forest is expected since it is basically a pine forest. This is consistent with the previous inventory of Lumbres et al. (2010) and their inventory (2014) in nearby Alno Communal Forest. However, the tree richness and composition is much different in depressed stations. ...
Communal forests are recognized to be of critical importance for the attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs) but these are often understudied. Such is the case in Cordillera Central Range with its unique biodiversity and urban biodiversity sites requiring protection like the Alapang Communal Forest in Benguet, Northern Philippines. This study documented the floral diversity, carbon stock and the community perspectives as baseline for conservation. A total of 187 plant species belonging to 145 genera and 70 families were recorded with Pinus kesiya as the most dominant species. The forest exhibited high species richness, evenness, and diversity including indigenous, endemic species and some conservation important species. The total forest carbon was estimated at 6,931.44 t with an average of 192.54 t/ha. An interesting trade off was documented in the study with the pine dominated ridge stations having lower diversity but higher carbon stock while broad-leaf dominated depressed stations have higher diversity but lower carbon stock. Community surveys revealed the willingness to protect the forest due to its crucial role as a water source, highlighting its value and the importance of preservation. These findings offer empirical evidences on the role of communal forest on biodiversity conservation, carbon stock as well as forest goods and services. Locally, these findings offer insights for conservation and sustainable management of the Alapang Communal Forest and other local urban forests.
... Distribution within the Philippines. Luzon: Benguet (Kias province), Nueva Ecija, Bataan (Mount Mariveles), Bulacan, Rizal, Quezon; Visayas: Catanduanes, Panay, Samar; Mindanao: District of Zamboanga, Surigao del Sur, Bukidnon ( Lumbres et al. 2010;Pelser et al. 2011 onwards;Blasco et al. 2014) and Davao Oriental (present study). ...
Three Philippine endemic gingers, Alpinia rufa C.Presl, Etlingera dalican (Elmer) A.D.Poulsen and Globba campsophylla K.Schum. are reported for the first time in the province of Davao Oriental, specifically in the buffer zone of the Mt. Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary, Sitio Tumalite, Barangay La Union, San Isidro, Davao Oriental, Philippines. Full descriptions of these species, phenology, notes on local names, ethno-medicinal usage, availability status, propagation and habitat ecology along with their photographs are provided.
The tropical flora remains chronically understudied and the lack of floristic understanding hampers ecological research and its application for large-scale conservation planning. Given scarce resources and the scale of the challenge there is a need to maximize the efficiency of both sampling strategies and sampling units, yet there is little information on the relative efficiency of different approaches to floristic assessment in tropical forests. This paper is the first attempt to address this gap. We repeatedly sampled forests in two regions of Amazonia using the two most widely used plot-based protocols of floristic sampling, and compared their performance in terms of the quantity of floristic knowledge and ecological insight gained scaled to the field effort required. Specifically, the methods are assessed first in terms of the number of person-days required to complete each sample (‘effort’), secondly by the total gain in the quantity of floristic information that each unit of effort provides (‘crude inventory efficiency’), and thirdly in terms of the floristic information gained as a proportion of the target species pool (‘proportional inventory efficiency’). Finally, we compare the methods in terms of their efficiency in identifying different ecological patterns within the data (‘ecological efficiency’) while controlling for effort. There are large and consistent differences in the performance of the two methods. The disparity is maintained even after accounting for regional and site-level variation in forest species richness, tree density and the number of field assistants. We interpret our results in the context of selecting the appropriate method for particular research purposes.
Leaf size zonation along an altitudinal gradient from 2000–2700 m a.s.l. on Mt. Pulog, Cordillera mountain range, Luzon Is., Philippines was examined using the Raunkiaer-Webb classification system. The entire altitudinal range studied was dominated by the small leaf size classes which possess thick, lustrous, pubescent leaves adapted to high evapotranspiration, cold temperature and other stressful conditions. Altitudinal leaf size zonation was identified as follows: (1) pure needle leaved zone from 2000–2300 m a.s.l., (2) mixed needle leaved/microphyllous zone from 2300–2400 m a.s.l., (3) microphyllous zone from 2400–2600 m a.s.l. and, (4) microphyllous/nanophyllous zone from 2600–2700 m a.s.l., coinciding with the altitudinal vegetation zonation. This pattern is different from that in other tropical mountains, which usually show a gradual shift from a mesophyllous zone in the lowland to a nanophyllous zone in the upper subalpine. Stressful conditions such as steep topography (1200–2300 m a.s.l.), cloud cover, decrease of temperature, strong winds (2600–2700 m a.s.l.) could have influenced the altitudinal leaf size zonation on Mt. Pulog. The complex phytogeographical position of Mt. Pulog as a transition region between the tropics and subtropics have also influenced leaf size zonation as in eastern Himalaya, southwestern China and Taiwan.
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