Source: SEAMEO BIOTROP's Research Grant | 2009

Abstract:

Bryophytes communities were compared between arboreal and terrestrial habitats in primary forest in the Mount Halimun Salak National Park, West Java.  The communities were analyzed based on species diversity, abundance, and biomass. A total of 150 bryophytes species were identified, including 67 species of mosses (Bryopsida) and 83 species of liverwort (Hepaticopsida). Both bryophytes group (mosses and liverworts) varied in both diversity and abundance between arboreal and terrestrial communities as well as among different elevation. Species diversity of arboreal habitat (116 species) was higher than that of terrestrial habitat (64 species). The bryophytes have high abundance in term of coverage at terrestrial habitats was mostly mosses species, whereas most liverworts species were more abundant at arboreal habitats. Species richness of both terrestrial and arboreal habitat tend lower at higher elevation. In the contrary, the abundances are commonly higher at high elevation compared to that at lower elevation. Though bryophytes contribution on total diversity of plant species is quite high, the contribution on total biomass in the forest is very low. In total, terrestrial bryophytes represented 0.2 – 1.8 kg ha-1 dry weigh, whereas arboreal bryophytes yield about 0.2-57 kg dry weight.

Key words: bryophytes, mosses, liverworts, terrestrial habitat, arboreal habitat

---

Download full report